active · lexical · first recorded 2026-07-02 · registers: hn, cooking
Part of the emerging plain-spoken-confidence cluster: sounding grounded and empirical without citing anything. 12× the human rate and rising across model generations.
◑ appears in good human writing too (collateral score 0.26 — the closer to 1, the more it also fires on acclaimed pre-AI prose)
…In practice, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is a more effective anti-browning agent…
occurrences per 10k words, measured 2026-10-26 (run #19, 3 current + 3 vintage models)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 2.17 | 0.45 | 0.25 | 0.56 |
| hn | 3.86 | — | 0.53 | |
| cooking | 1.89 | — | 0.00 | |
| parenting | 0.32 | — | 0.00 | |
| 1.09 | — | — |
| run | date | AI /10k | vs humans |
|---|---|---|---|
| #2 | 2026-07-02 | 3.14 | ×14 vs humans |
| #3 | 2026-07-02 | 2.19 | ×18 vs humans |
| #4 | 2026-07-06 | 1.78 | ×5.0 vs humans |
| #5 | 2026-07-13 | 1.38 | ×1.6 vs humans |
| #6 | 2026-07-20 | 2.01 | only in AI |
| #7 | 2026-07-27 | 1.63 | ×6.9 vs humans |
| #8 | 2026-08-03 | 2.55 | ×5.1 vs humans |
| #9 | 2026-08-10 | 2.25 | ×18 vs humans |
| #10 | 2026-08-17 | 1.78 | ×4.0 vs humans |
| #11 | 2026-08-31 | 1.78 | ×15 vs humans |
| #12 | 2026-09-07 | 2.14 | ×3.5 vs humans |
| #13 | 2026-09-14 | 1.63 | ×3.6 vs humans |
| #14 | 2026-09-21 | 2.43 | ×10 vs humans |
| #15 | 2026-09-28 | 1.63 | ×6.6 vs humans |
| #16 | 2026-10-05 | 2.75 | ×7.2 vs humans |
| #17 | 2026-10-12 | 2.46 | ×7.1 vs humans |
| #18 | 2026-10-19 | 1.83 | ×16 vs humans |
| #19 | 2026-10-26 | 2.17 | ×8.7 vs humans |
literal: in practice