Generative AI Users, Beware of Illogical Syntax!

Generative AI can use strange syntax to draw connections that don't make sense to humans.

Using generative AI to develop marketing content is primarily an editorial task—and not always a simple one. If you’ve spent much time with AI, you’ve probably seen numerous cases of nonsense and hyperbole. These things are easy to catch, but they aren’t the only troubles with generative AI as a copywriting tool.

I’ve used ChatGPT since its public launch as a copywriting assistant. The platform has improved remarkably in that time. It has plenty of bad habits. Some are easy to spot, but many lurk just below a typical reader's conscious awareness.

How generative AI structures sentences—its syntax—can leave tell-tale signs for astute readers that the text wasn't written by a human. Strange syntax also obscures the article's meaning. In short, it's bad writing.

One of my favorite examples of genAI's alien syntax is ChatGPT’s tendency to overuse correlative conjunctions.  Examples are phrases like “whether X or Y” or “from A to B.” 

The weird syntax of generative AI

Like any phrase, a correlative conjunction can be a useful tool when employed tastefully. I suspect ChatGPT fell in love with them by reading millions of blog posts, where they have been overused for decades thanks to the SEO arms race.

Correlative conjunctions are handy for SEO-driven copywriters because they are easy ways to add keywords to text. 

“Whether you want to see aardvarks or zebras, our zoo has it all.” 

“We offer both artificial flowers and real blossoms.”

Although ChatGPT loves using correlative conjunctions, it frequently tries to correlate elements that a human writer would never connect together.

Sometimes ChatGPT will generate a correlation that implies a complete set, but is transparently incomplete. Consider this sentence: “From okapis to cheetahs, our zoo has it all.” There is no meaningful spectrum of zoo animals that begins with okapis and ends with cheetahs. 

At best, this sentence looks like it was written by a lazy copywriter who just wanted to finish. The earlier example (aardvarks to zebras) at least has an alphabetical structure even a toddler would recognize. 

Here’s another one: “Our shop not only changes tires, but also checks your tail lights.” Do you think the shop wants consumers to think of these things as the limits of what it can do? 

If you’re using generative AI as a copywriting assistant, take an extra moment to examine its correlative conjunctions. I recommend deleting the bad ones, rather than trying to find a clever fix. AI-generated text is cheap. The value comes from your contribution as the editor.

Here are a few more examples of correlative conjunctions to keep in mind:

both...and

either...or

neither...nor

not only...but also

as...as

so...that

the more...the more

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