Why AI-Generated Text Gives Itself Away - and How to Clean It Up

We’ve All Seen It — and Felt It

You’re reading something online. Maybe a product description. A LinkedIn post. An email from customer support. Something’s off. It’s polite. Polished. Precise. But it feels like it was written by someone who’s never had a bad day, or a strong opinion.

You’ve just met an AI.

Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and others are now generating vast amounts of text across the internet. And while they’re impressively fluent, they often give themselves away — not just to humans, but to automated detection systems too.

That’s a problem. Especially if you’re a student submitting an essay, a marketer writing a product page, or a jobseeker crafting a cover letter.

That’s why this tool exists.

The Telltale Signs of AI Text

AI-generated text often contains certain stylistic fingerprints - not because the machine is trying to be sneaky, but because it’s trying to be helpful. And in doing so, it overplays the part.

1. Polite Formality Overload

AI likes to open with phrases like:

• "Certainly, I can help you with that."
• "As an AI language model, I..."
• "Let me assist you with..."

To a machine, this is being helpful. To a reader, it's... robotic.

2. Smart Punctuation and Unusual Spacing

AI tends to use:

• Curly quotes (“ ”) instead of straight ones
• Em dashes (—) instead of simple hyphens (-)
• Thin spaces, non-breaking spaces, or invisible zero-width characters

They make the text look pretty and suspiciously machine-generated.

3. Overly Balanced Language

AI hates making mistakes. It often caveats statements, hedges opinions, and uses "balanced" phrasing even when it's unnecessary.

“While there are advantages to X, it’s also important to consider Y...”

Yes, that’s true. But humans usually get to the point.

Why This Gets Detected

Automated detection systems look for patterns across thousands of examples. They don't "understand" the meaning of your writing - they calculate:

• Burstiness: Do your sentence lengths vary like a human’s?
• Perplexity: Does your writing have enough surprises?
• Character and phrase patterns: Are you using the same structures seen in AI responses?

Even humans spot this intuitively. We don’t always know why something feels artificial — we just feel it.

Why You Should Clean It

Let's be clear: using AI is not cheating. It's a tool. A good one.

But when that tool starts speaking for you, instead of like you, you risk sounding like everyone else.

And when:

• Recruiters skim your CV
• Teachers scan your essays
• Customers read your support replies

...they're subconsciously judging how "real" it feels. AI gives off a sheen - helpful, sure, but also bland.

What the AI Text Cleaner Does

This tool removes the parts that give away machine authorship - without throwing away your ideas.

It:

• ✅ Replaces smart punctuation
• ✅ Removes emojis and decorative bullets
• ✅ Collapses awkward spacing
• ✅ Removes generic AI-sounding intros
• ✅ Highlights changes (optionally)
• ✅ Outputs clean, natural, human-friendly copy

It also lets you choose Light Clean (keep the message, fix the quirks) or Deep Clean (strip all signs of AI voice).

Because Words Matter

In a world where we all have access to the same AI, your real value is in your voice. Your story. Your tone.

AI can help you find the words. But this tool helps make sure they still sound like yours.

Try the AI Text Cleaner for yourself. Paste in something an AI wrote. You’ll see what we mean.

Let's make human the new default again - even if it started with a robot.