active · discourse · first recorded 2026-07-02 · registers: hn
The engagement-bait close, and “curious” as a social lubricant in general: “I'm curious how it handles…”, “genuinely curious whether…”. 8× the human rate; widely complained about on social platforms.
…I'm curious how it handles large captures and filtering performance…
occurrences per 10k words, measured 2026-07 (run #2: 3 current + 3 vintage models, 3 matched registers, 1,392 samples)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 2.86 | 2.39 | 0.11 | 0.03 |
| hn | 6.94 | — | 0.24 | |
| cooking | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| parenting | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| 3.26 | — | — |
regex: \b((genuinely|i'?m|i'?d be) )?curious (what|how|whether|if|to)\b