I’ll Instantly Know A Writer Used ChatGPT When I See This

I’ve started noticing the same commenter joining the discussion in hundreds of articles. Since he uses a pseudonym, and I don’t know his actual name, I’ve started referring to him as “AI Detective Dylan” in my head. Every few days, I’ll finish reading an article, scroll down to the comments, and find Dylan explaining why the piece was “obviously written by ChatGPT.”

Whenever I see one of Dylan’s comments, the pattern is usually the same. He regularly breaks down articles sentence by sentence, pointing to phrases, transitions, and word choices he believes reveal AI involvement.

“Once you’ve seen enough AI writing, it becomes easy to spot,” Dylan wrote. “Anyone who disagrees with me is delusional!”

Last month, I watched Dylan accuse one writer of using ChatGPT because the article contained “a few metaphors.” A few days later, I saw he made the same argument under a completely different article written by someone else. Meanwhile, he seemingly ignored writers publishing 100,000 words a day on multiple platforms while somehow keeping up with social media, client work, and full-time jobs.

I thought I knew ChatGPT — until I started exploring beyond the chat box.

A few months ago, I had a realization. Like most people, I was using ChatGPT for the usual things — writing emails, fixing grammar, brainstorming ideas, answering random questions, and occasionally asking it to explain something complicated.

It was already saving me hours every week. But then one evening, while trying to organize a content project, I accidentally clicked on a menu I’d never paid attention to before.

That one click turned into nearly two hours of exploring. I started digging through settings, trying different tools, uploading files, switching modes, and testing features I’d either ignored or never even knew existed.

And honestly…

I realized I had been using maybe 20% of what ChatGPT can actually do. Some of these features are incredibly useful if you’re a student. Some are a game-changer for designers, developers, researchers, and writers.

And a few made me wonder,

“Why didn’t I know about this sooner?”

So instead of keeping those discoveries to myself, I decided to put together this list. Whether you’re new to ChatGPT or use…