Are We Cooked?

When Algorithms Start Choosing Our Words

Have you noticed how certain words suddenly show up everywhere?
Not because you chose them but because the internet did.

Cleaner sentences. Safer tone. Familiar phrasing.
Language that feels… optimized.

Here’s the uncomfortable question behind it all: Are we still shaping language — or are algorithms shaping us?

Algorithms Don’t Just Reflect Reality. They Bend It.

Social platforms like TikTok, Spotify, and Instagram don’t simply surface trends.
They manufacture them.

A song repeats often enough — it becomes a hit.
A phrase shows up frequently enough — it becomes normal.
A tone gets rewarded — it spreads.

What feels organic is often just amplified.

Over time, we stop questioning it.
We adopt the language, the tastes, the rhythms — assuming they reflect real demand, when they often reflect platform incentives.

That’s how distortion starts to feel like culture.

AI Didn’t Just Learn Our Language. We’re Learning Its.

Since the rise of tools like ChatGPT, researchers have noticed something subtle but telling:
words like “delve” suddenly appearing more often in everyday writing.

That’s not coincidence.
That’s a feedback loop.

AI absorbs patterns.
Humans adopt AI-generated phrasing.
Those patterns spread — faster than we notice.

The result?
Language that’s clear, polite, neutral… and increasingly machine shaped.

Helpful, yes.
But also flattened. Predictable. Sanitized.

When machines optimize for frictionless clarity, and humans mirror it, something human gets quietly edited out.

Visualize It!

Sometimes visuals convey the idea better. Here is my attempt at it.

Why This Matters for Leadership and Work

This isn’t an anti-AI argument. I use these tools daily.

But at mPath Services, I see the difference between:

• clarity with intent

• and clarity without presence

Algorithms optimize for engagement.
AI optimizes for usefulness.

Humans still need to optimize for meaning.

The leaders who stand out today aren’t louder or faster.
They’re more deliberate.
They notice when their voice starts sounding generic — and reclaim it.

Your Turn

When you reread something you wrote recently —
does it still sound like you?

Or does it sound like something designed to be safe, efficient, and broadly acceptable?

Awareness might be the most human skill left.