active · lexical · first recorded 2026-07-02 · registers: hn, cooking, parenting
The 2026 flagship. Models reach for “rather than” where humans write “instead of”, “not”, or just rephrase. Five times the human rate across every register we measure, and rare in acclaimed pre-AI prose — which makes it one of the safest tells to act on.
…the compounds dissolve in water rather than reaching your eyes…
…leading to rancidity rather than dangerous bacterial growth…
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 | 12.48 | 10.90 | 2.67 | 1.52 |
| hn | 11.51 | — | 2.14 | |
| cooking | 11.04 | — | 2.70 | |
| parenting | 19.48 | — | 3.42 | |
| 1.09 | — | — |
literal: rather than