"Not just X -- it's Y" is one of the more irritatingly common signs, especially for sentences like that one which absolutely do not need it.

The Wikipedia article on detecting AI writing is a big help if you need to calibrate your sensors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

I see, thx for the article too!

I think I'll actually post the article here, quite useful

Yeah it’s basically the prose equivalent of getting too much radio play - hilarious how the breakthrough of LLM content has ‘ruined’ “it’s not X—it’s Y” for so many of us now

Maybe, like overplayed pop songs, in 20 years or so we’ll come around to viewing the phrase fondly.

> "Not just X -- it's Y" is one of the more irritatingly common signs ...

It's a bit of a "Karen AI" telltale sign. It's probably been trained on a lot of "I-know-it-all-Karen" posts and as a result we're bombarded with Karen-slop.

It's not just overused phrasing — it's the hallmark of LLM prose.

“It’s not X, it’s Y” is an absolutely ubiquitous AI pattern. Throw in an em-dash and it’s basically ai;dr

Thx!

It's also just an utterly meaningless statement. Filler words with no value whatsoever.

"Let's be honest" is another extremely strong tell.