This Is Becoming An Era Of AI-Inflected Speech

After ChatGPT was launched in late 2022, millions of people have used it to help write everything from emails and essays to wedding vows and apology texts. However, researchers are noticing something surprising: AI is doing more than helping us write to a point of actually changing the way we speak.

A recent analysis by researchers at the Max Planck Institute, highlighted in Scientific American, reveals that words commonly used by ChatGPT, like "delve," "tapestry" and "nuance," are showing up more frequently in everyday conversation.

After examining over 700,000 hours of transcribed podcasts and YouTube videos, researchers found a statistically significant uptick in GPT-style vocabulary, even in people who may not realize they’re parroting a chatbot.

Welcome to the era of AI-inflected speech.

Large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT are trained on vast amounts of data, and their outputs reflect a specific, polished tone, one that leans academic, thoughtful and often verbose.

If you’ve ever asked ChatGPT to rewrite something, you’ve likely seen words like "explore," "compelling" or "robust" pop up.

Now that AI tools are becoming a default writing assistant for everything from school assignments to Slack updates, those patterns are starting to seep into human language — not just online, but out loud.

"The language of ChatGPT is infectious," said Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Cornell University. "People are drawn to it because it feels authoritative."

And that draw is measurable: in one example, use of the word "delve" jumped 51 percent since ChatGPT’s public release.

This influence isn’t all bad. In fact, educators are already seeing how ChatGPT can boost clarity, especially for English language learners or students who struggle with structure.

One study from Smart Learning Environments showed that students who used ChatGPT as a writing coach improved their coherence, vocabulary range and grammar.

"AI is helping users write more clearly and confidently," said Christine Cruzvergara of Handshake, who studies how AI is reshaping entry-level jobs. "That can be empowering, especially for people who feel intimidated by formal writing."

For non-native speakers, AI-generated language can offer a consistent model to follow; a kind of real-time tutor that never gets tired.

But there’s a flip side. As AI becomes a silent co-author in our day-to-day lives, our personal writing styles may begin to fade. If everyone’s emails, social posts and even texts start to use the same GPT-style phrasing, we risk sounding less like ourselves and more like ... well, a chatbot.