Your AI essay has a fingerprint. And I can read it.

I reviewed orthoped surgery trauma fellowship applications for our program this last week. Somewhere around the 12th essay, I realized I could spot the AI-edited ones almost without fail — not because the writing was poor, but because of one specific punctuation pattern.

The em dash. Deployed constantly — confidently — in every paragraph — like punctuation on stimulants. Just like this—😂.

Humans don’t write like that. ChatGPT does.

These applicants used AI to sound more polished, and instead revealed (to me) exactly how they wrote their essay. Most faculty reviewers can’t see it yet, but those of us who use these tools daily (or have read enough AI assisted writing at this point to recognize the same pattern) clock it immediately.

The lesson in my opinion isn’t “don’t use AI.” I didn’t ding the applicants for their use but I did tip one or 2 that I could tell (lot of blushing).

It’s just that unedited AI output has a voice, and it isn’t yours. Use AI to scaffold. Use it to draft. Then rewrite it until it sounds like you again.

Fellowship and medical education and job search committees aren’t just reading your ideas. They’re reading how you think. Use AI to help you write! Just make sure that it’s actually you on the page.