Dear brands: AI is aging you

Ever tried writing with AI to appeal to Gen Z? To find out today’s ‘trendy slang’? To sound younger?

Hard truth: It’s not working and, unfortunately, your brand sounds so much older. Here’s why:

AI was trained on internet posts from the 2010s

It’s at least 10 years behind on how we currently talk. You can ask AI what the kids are saying these days, but it won’t know. 

AI knows about “yassss queen” and “I did a thing.” It knows about “YOLO,” “bae,” and it still thinks we’re all “adulting.” 

AI’s knowledge of slang is a hodge-podge of cringey millennial vocabulary (doggo), and words pinched from the LGBTQ community (slay) and AAVE (finna) that flooded social media in the 10s. 

Not only do these words make Gen Z cringe, they actually make the millennials who used to use them recoil in horror at the memory of their past selves. Nobody wants to be reminded of how they used to sound on Twitter in 2014.

On top of that, using words that are at least 10 years out of date makes your brand look completely out of touch. Instead of appearing cool, young, and exciting, your brand immediately shapeshifts into that annoying parent trying to be “a cool mum.” 

And when that happens, all your audience wants you to do is go back downstairs and stop interrupting the hang.