Does writing with AI make everyone's content sound the same?
It can: essays written with an instruction-tuned model were more similar to each other, and an opinionated assistant pulled writing toward its stance.
One small controlled experiment plus one large related experiment, both with LLMs.
experiment2 of 2 tested with LLMsEvidence from 2023–2024How we rateOffer varied suggestions and keep the user's own voice in charge.
- Offer several diverse suggestions rather than one “best” one.Our reading
- Measure output diversity across users, not just quality.From the study
- Expect the effect to come from model text; encourage user-written content.From the study
- Audit stance in suggestions on contested topics.From the study
What they found
Padmakumar & He (2024)experiment
38 Upwork writers wrote 300 argumentative essays on 10 topics with GPT-3, with InstructGPT, or alone. Writing with InstructGPT (but not GPT-3) significantly reduced diversity: essays by different authors became more similar, with lower lexical and content diversity. The effect came mainly from the model's contributions; users' own text was unaffected.
“writing with InstructGPT (but not the GPT3) results in a statistically significant reduction in diversity”
Padmakumar & He, 2024 · Abstract
Jakesch et al. (2023)experiment
1,506 Prolific participants wrote a post on whether social media is good for society, with no assistant or a language-model writing assistant set to argue for or against; 500 judges rated their writing. With a pro-social-media model, people were 2.04× as likely as the control group to argue it was good; with a critical model, 2.0× as likely to argue it was bad. Their later survey attitudes shifted too.
“Using the opinionated language model affected the opinions expressed in participants’ writing and shifted their opinions in the subsequent attitude survey.”
Jakesch et al., 2023 · Abstract
Trade-offs and when it doesn't apply
- 38 writers, argumentative essays only.
- Base GPT-3 didn't show the effect.
- Some homogeneity (consistent tone) can be desired.
What it looks like
How to check it in your product
Compute similarity between outputs from different users with and without AI help.
Open questions
- Do newer models increase or reduce homogenization?
- Does offering multiple options fix it?
- What does reduced diversity do to audiences over time?
FAQ
Does AI writing assistance reduce diversity?
Padmakumar & He found writing with InstructGPT (not GPT-3) significantly reduced diversity across 300 essays.
Is it the users or the model?
Mainly the model's contributions; users' own text was unaffected.
Sources
- Does Writing with Language Models Reduce Content Diversity?Vishakh Padmakumar, He He (2024). ICLR 2024.
- Co-Writing with Opinionated Language Models Affects Users' ViewsMaurice Jakesch, Advait Bhat, Daniel Buschek, Lior Zalmanson, Mor Naaman (2023). CHI 2023.