When SMS first came, it changed the way we spoke. Unlike writing a paragraph length response, I started speaking in just a few words due to character limitations. This led many of us to develop the habit of speaking with lesser language and continued from there. Currently, researchers say a similar shift is occurring this time because of AI chatbots. Recent research shows that while humans feed AI models, we are not only teaching robots, but copying them from them.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany reveal that there have been measurable changes in the way humans speak. They discovered that people are beginning to adapt to how AI chatbots like ChatGpt talk, write and communicate.
The study analyzed over 360,000 YouTube videos and 770,000 podcast episodes released around the time of ChatGPT. In the analysis, this study found a rapid rise in human habits using words normally generated by AI. These include words like Meticulation, Boast, and Realm, as noted in the report in The Gerge. Researchers call these “GPT words,” suggesting that humans remember them and use them more than ever in their everyday speeches.
“Detects measurable and sudden increases in the use of words preferentially generated by ChatGpt,” the study states. The study also points out a kind of linguistic feedback loop, with machines trained in human speech being subtly reconstructed in return. “This marks the beginning of a closed cultural feedback loop,” said the author of the study published in Preprint Server Arxiv.
I delve into the words that stood out in this study in particular. Research co-author, Yakura, calls it a language watermark and says it shows AI's growing influence on human language. “The 'Delve' is just the tip of the iceberg,” Yakura explained, suggesting that this is just the beginning of a wider change in human communication.
Interestingly, this is not the first time researchers have observed the effects of AI on human representation. Previous research has focused on written language impact. However, this new study in particular focuses on the important changes humans experience in spoken language communication. According to another co-author, Levin Brinkman, “It's natural for humans to imitate each other, but now they imitate machines.”
This study emphasizes that the impact of AI is not just about vocabulary. Researchers believe that language tone and structure are beginning to change. Humans are now using longer, more formal writing, with less emotional and more sophisticated delivery. “We internalize this virtual vocabulary into daily communication,” says Yakura, who sees this trend in lectures, podcasts and online conversations.
Researchers also raise concerns about the broader implications of changes in human communication styles based on AI. They emphasize that AI doesn't just change word choices. According to scholars like Cornell Tech's Mor Naaman, this change is not only losing verbal diversity, but also losing deeper human touch, vulnerability, spontaneity and personality. “Instead of clarifying our own ideas,” warns Naaman.
Researchers acknowledge that AI can help humans improve efficiency and even encourage more positive social interactions such as AutocorRect and Smart Replies, but it also becomes people who rely on it. Rather than trusting our words and feelings now, humans rely more on AI in all kinds of conversations.
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