How to sound human in a world of humans sounding like ChatGPT.

Try the following prompt on ChatGPT:

Write a short bio for Jane Doe. Jane is a leadership coach and consultant working with nonprofits to increase efficiency and create more cohesive teams. She was a senior non-profit executive and has an MBA from Harvard.

This is what ChatGPT generated for me.

Jane Doe is a leadership coach and consultant who helps nonprofits achieve their goals and improve their performance. She has over 20 years of experience as a senior non-profit executive, leading organizations in education, health, and social services. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a certificate in nonprofit management from Stanford University. 

Jane works with nonprofit leaders and teams to develop their skills, strategies, and culture. She offers coaching, training, and facilitation services that are tailored to each client's needs and challenges. Jane is passionate about empowering nonprofits to make a positive difference in the world.

SO freaking impressive!!! Now I have a question for you.

Does your bio sound like that? 

If you’re feeling personally attacked by this question, know that I do it with great love. 

But you have a problem.

When everyone uses ChatGPT to create their bios and their copy, everyone starts to sound the same. 

AI language is basically business dude lorem ipsum

In one of my favorite articles ever written, Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic bemoans the scourge of business-dude lorem ipsum that has taken over the world. Yes, lorem ipsum, the placeholder copy that designers use when creating layouts.

You know what I’m talking about. The jargon-filled, meaningless business-speak, lacking sound or fury and signifying nothing. 

Unfortunately,  that is exactly what AI seems to have learned, which is why everything that ChatGPT writes for us feels bland, inoffensive and completely devoid of personality. 

As a former AI engineer, I have to mention that there’s a technical reason for this. AI algorithms like ChatGPT are driven by statistics. While they have some randomness built into them, they’re designed to generate things that are “mostly average”.

This is the world we are headed towards, where everyone will use these AI tools to write their bio and their copy and their generic LinkedIn posts. AI tools will train on AI-generated output. Everything will start blending into mind-numbing sameness. 

But there’s a way out. As the good book says: In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. 

In a world where everyone relies on ChatGPT, the one who actually uses their human abilities will stand out. 

But how do you sound human? 

Three ways that you can make your brand human and unique that ChatGPT can’t (yet) do:

1. Tell your stories

Instead of listing out all of your credentials, degrees and accomplishments in a bio in chronological order, what if you told a true, personal story that shows why you do your thing, and how good you are at it?

Here’s what a bio-with-a-story for Jane Doe could look like:

Jane Doe’s family came to the US as refugees when she was 10. A nonprofit helped the family find a home and her parents find jobs. That experience stuck with her for life. As a Harvard MBA many years later, she interned at a nonprofit where she experienced the passion and purpose, along with the stress and inefficiencies of the nonprofit world. She told herself, “There’s got to be a better way.”

After Harvard, Jane decided to go all in. With a certificate in nonprofit management from Stanford, she climbed to the highest echelons of leadership, constantly challenging herself to find and implement better practices. 

Today, as a consultant and speaker, she’s sharing that experience with leaders and executives to make their nonprofits run better and their teams happier. 

What do you think? Does the personal story give more life to the bio? Does it convince you of Jane’s competence, authority and her sense of purpose? 

Prompt: What’s a personal story that ChatGPT doesn’t know about you?

2. Share details, even obscure ones

My friend Dixie de la Tour, an incredible storyteller and storytelling coach, always tells each and every client of hers, “Details! Details make the story!”

This can sound counterintuitive. Storytelling guides, especially business ones, tell us that a story should have only the minimal amount of information required to set the scene. 

Keep it super duper tight! If you talk too much, the big, powerful execs at your presentation will tune out and you will not get their money (or their substitute parental approval you crave deep inside. Ouch).

But when you’re hanging out with your best friend at brunch, you’re telling stories, not powerpointing at each other (unless you’re both management consultants, I think). Real human stories always have a sprinkling of so-called ‘irrelevant’ detail that puts you in the middle of the scene. 

Here’s an example of a fact.

“I went to see the manager at his office to ask him for a job.”

And here’s how it sounds when you insert just a little bit of detail.

“I stood outside the red door of the manager’s office and took a deep breath. I really, really needed this job.”

ChatGPT isn’t good at this. AI can imitate human writing, but it doesn’t quite get the nuanced difference between little details that add character, versus those that are completely ridiculous. So far, that’s solidly a human skillset.

Prompt: What’s one little quirky detail that you can add the next time you tell a story?

3. Let your own voice and personality shine through

Going back to powerpointing at brunch … notice something I did there?  I invented a new word. It’s not grammatically correct, nor will you find it in a dictionary, yet you know exactly what I mean. 

Humans are really good at this. We constantly and spontaneously invent and reinvent language: slang, neologisms like the one above or even new meanings for existing words. We use cultural references that we share with our friends and colleagues, like a secret code or inside joke.

Wondering if you have the ability to do that? You probably invented five new words the last time you had brunch with a friend or played with your kids. Pay attention and you’ll notice.

ChatGPT doesn’t know how to do that. Yet. Even if we programmed it that way, it doesn’t truly understand the difference between new words that add sparkle to a piece of text, versus those that render it meaningless.

Prompt: How can you let your own personality shine and take some risks with your written language?

You’re not a robot. You don’t have to sound like one.