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For as long as people have been using AI to churn out text, other people have been coming up with tells that something was written by AI. Sometimes its punctuation that comes under suspicion. (The em dash is generally considered the shadiest.) Other times its words that robot writers seem to love and overuse. But what if the biggest giveaway that a text was written by AI isnt a word, phrase, or punctuation mark, but a particular sentence structure instead? Why is it so hard to make AI writing sound human? The idea that certain rhythms of sentences might be a sign of AI writing first came to my attention through my work as a professional word nerd. Recently, I a potential new client contacted me about helping to polish up some of their writing. As an editor, thats not unusual. But like several recent inquiries, this assignment came with an AI-age twist. The client had conducted a good amount of research for a work project and then asked a popular LLM to synthesize the findings. Afterward, they checked it for factual errors and removed anything that seemed an obvious red flag for AI writing. But the text still just didnt sound human. Could I fix it? I agreed that despite the clients considerable efforts, something still sounded off about the text. I also concurred it wasnt immediately easy to spot what it was. All the commonly cited tells of AI writing had been removed. There wasnt an em dash or a delves in sight. Still, it felt like it came from a bot, not a human. The problem was clearly deeper than word choice. I faced this dilemma from the perspective of a communications pro. But there are plenty of others scratching their heads over the same issue. These are the entrepreneurs, marketers, and others who want to use AI to speed up their workflows but dont want to annoy others with robotic off-note emails and reports. The group also includes writer Sam Kriss. AI tells are more than weird words and punctuation In a fascinating article in The New York TImes Magazine, Kriss delves into the stylistic tics that are certain, frequently infuriating, tells of AI writing. Unlike more quantitatively focused recent studies, he doesnt focus on easy-to-measure features like the frequency of certain words or punctuation marks. Instead, he investigates the larger patterns in AI writing that contribute to its uncanny and often deeply annoying feel. AI, for instance, lacks any direct experience of the physical world. As a result, AI writing tends to be full of imprecise abstractions. There are a lot of mixed metaphors. Bots also overuse the rule of three. (Lists of descriptors or examples are generally more satisfying for the reader in groups of three.) Phrases that are common in one country or context are reproduced in others where they sound foreign. If youre either a language lover despairing about the current flood of AI slop or a practically minded professional looking to use AI without irritating human readers, the article is definitely worth a read. But one of Krisss observations in particular set alarm bells ringing in my mind. ‘Its not X. Its Y’ Im driven to the point of fury by any sentence following the pattern Its not X, its Y, even though this totally normal construction appears in such generally well-received bodies of literature as the Bible and Shakespeare, he writes. Kriss goes on to cite instances of this Its not X, its Y sentence construction in everything from politicians tweets to pizza ads. Appearances in great literature notwithstanding, the recent flood of examples has transformed this phrasing into a sure-fire way to know youre reading something written by a machine. Hmm, I thought, reopening my clients document. Sure enough, when I reread my new clients oddly mechanical writing, I saw that particular sentence construction in nearly every paragraph. One AI tell thats easy to scrub Getting rid of all the giveaways that a particular text is written by AI is difficult. It might just take you longer to do a thorough scrub job than to just actually put in the intitial effort to write the thing yourself. (Which is, as a side note, what I often tell clients looking for this sort of editorial work.) Plus, writing is good for your brain. In other instances of more mechanistic writing, keeping AI style might not matter. Who cares about the literary merits of the executive summary of a data analysis if the numbers and the takeaways are correct? If thats the case, dont sweat the odd, Its not X. Its Y. But if youre producing ad copy, a presentation, or persuasive content and you want the reader to feel like a human actually wrote it, Krisss article is a helpful reminder. Sure, certain words or language ticks might be more common in AI writing. But the overall problem is usually deeper. If you really want to try to make AI language passably human, you need to worry not just about word choice and eliminating hallucinations. You need to look more deeply at the way the sentences are constructed. And you definitely want to avoid Its not x. Its y. As a bot might put it, this sentence structure isnt just a cliché. Its now a dead giveaway that AI wrote the text.
Category:
E-Commerce
The first major retail bankruptcy of 2026 has arrived. Today, Saks Global Enterprises, owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and other luxury retail brands, has filed to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The news shows that not even companies aimed at high-end consumers are immune to economic downturns. Heres what you need to know. What’s happened? On Wednesday, January 14, Saks Global announced that it is seeking Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. At the same time, the luxury retail brand announced that it has also secured $1.75 billion in financing commitments. Much of this money will be used by Saks Global to finance its turnaround efforts through the bankruptcy process. In addition to announcing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Saks Global also announced the appointment of a new chief executive, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who will take over the role immediately from the companys outgoing CEO, Richard Baker. Why is Saks Global filing for bankruptcy? The companys brands are dealing with the same problems that many other retailers are facinghigher tariffs, inflation, online competition, and consumers who are cutting back on discretionary spending. A key problem for Saks Global over the past year has been an inability to pay its debts. As noted by Reuters, Saks Globals bankruptcy filings show the company has assets and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion. Its debt burden increased after Saks’s previous parent company, Hudson’s Bay, acquired competitor Neiman Marcus for around $2.7 billion in 2024. That acquisition led to the formation of a new holding company, Saks Global, which is now filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy filings show that Saks Global owes significant sums of money to some of fashions largest brands, including around $136 million to Chanel, $60 million to Gucci owner Kering, and $26 million to luxury goods giant LVMH. Saks Globals most well-known brand is the iconic luxury department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue, which was originally founded in 1867. However, the company also owns a number of other retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Off 5TH, Last Call, Horchow, and, as of 2024, Neiman Marcus. What has Saks said about the bankruptcy filing? In a statement, CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said that the bankruptcy process is a defining moment for Saks Global, and the path ahead presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future. Are Saks and Neiman Marcus stores still open? Right now, Saks says that all of the companys storesincluding Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks off 5TH, Last Call, and Horchowwill remain open. Stores and e-commerce experiences across Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks OFF 5TH, Last Call, and Horchow are open and serving customers, the company noted. Could Saks close stores? Thats entirely possible. Saks Global noted that it was evaluating its operational footprint to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential. Operational footprint is a term retailers use to refer to their physical stores. It isnt uncommon for companies that are reorganizing themselves through Chapter 11 bankruptcy to close underperforming stores, so they have more financial resources to allocate to the more profitable ones. Will Saks go out of business? Right now, there is nothing to suggest that Saks Global or Saks Fifth Avenue will go out of business. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy process is being conducted so the company can get its financial house in order and continue running. However, what Saks Global may look like after it emerges from Chapter 11 remains unclear. As noted by CNBC, its possible the company could choose to close numerous stores, or even sell off entire planssay, choosing to get rid of Neiman Marcus, whose acquisition left it with so much debt. Another possibility would be for the retailer to close all its physical locations and continue sales online only. But nothing will be known for sure until Saks Global completes the Chapter 11 process. The process is expected to conclude later this year.
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E-Commerce
When the FIFA World Cup 2026 arrives in the United States this June, it will signal more than soccer’s return to its fastest-growing commercial market. The tournament will span three countriesthe United States, Mexico, and Canadafor the first time, becoming the largest World Cup ever staged. The scale, however, is also forcing a technological reset. As modern global sporting events grow in scale, expectations have evolved alongside them. Audiences now look for more immersive broadcasts and real-time data, broadcasters face rising reliability demands, and governing bodies continue to push for greater transparency and precision. Together, these pressures are starting to expose the limits of traditional IT systems in elite sports such as soccer, particularly around latency, and paving the way for AI-driven, real-time intelligence embedded directly into competition, operations, and fan engagement. As the official technology partner of the World Cup 2026, Lenovo is treating the tournament as a systems-level deployment, placing AI at the operational core of the worlds largest sporting event. The company is treating the event not as a showcase, but as a real-world test of AI beyond cloud-first architectures, where failure carries immediate consequences. Rather, its betting that global scale, matched with deep local execution, delivers an advantage in such a complex environment. Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang says the World Cup exemplifies how AI can operate in complex, large-scale environments. These are live events with real pressure and real audiences, he says. The value of such partnerships goes beyond short-term visibility. They help us understand how AI performs under demanding conditions, and that insight feeds directly into how we design and improve our technology. Yang also notes that, while Lenovo uses global sports partnerships to highlight its broader AI strategy, its technology is playing a major role in improving the sport itself. This year, you will see referees using AI support, players benefiting from AI insights, and organizers using AI to improve operations, he says. The company asserts that this year’s World Cup will be the most AI-driven global sporting event in history. An AI-Driven Sporting Event At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 in Las Vegas last week, Lenovo detailed how it will supply the digital backbone of the World Cup 2026from core infrastructure to advanced AI systems that will shape all 104 matches. Alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the company unveiled a broad suite of AI-driven technologies for the tournament, including Football AI Pro; AI-enabled 3D player avatars integrated into semi-automated offside technology; an Intelligent Command Center using real-time AI summaries to manage tournament operations across three countries; AI-stabilized Referee View body-camera footage for broadcasts; smart wayfinding and venue digital twins; and resilient infrastructure supporting video review of refereeing decisions and broadcast systems. Lenovo CTO Tolga Kurtoglu said that Lenovo had already deployed early versions of several upcoming technologies at the FIFA Club World Cup, using the tournament as a proving ground ahead of the much larger event this summer. That allowed us to learn, iterate, and improve before deploying at World Cup scale, he says. Football AI Pro, codeveloped with FIFA, is an enterprise-grade AI knowledge system built with Lenovos AI Factory. The platform orchestrates multiple AI agents to analyze millions of data points and more than 2,000 football-specific metrics in real time, turning raw match data into actionable intelligence when decisions matter most. Analysts can spot patterns instantly through synchronized video, data overlays, and 3D visualizations. Coaches can simulate tactical changes in real time against specific opponents, and players will receive personalized match analysis. The idea is to deliver value across the entire football ecosystem, not just one group, Kurtoglu explained. If you look at other industries, like aircraft engines, analytics completely changed the business modelfrom selling engines to selling engine hours. The same principle applies here. With enough data and processing, you can help fundamentally change how decisions are made on the pitch. Elevating Human Judgment One of the most visible changes fans will notice in this years World Cup is AI-enabled digital player avatars in broadcasts and officiating tools. Using computer vision and generative AI, Lenovo and FIFA are producing precise 3D representations of players, modeled on their actual physical dimensions. These avatars will appear in semi-automated offside replays, offering clearer, more contextual visuals for fans in stadiums and at home. According to Johannes Holzmüller, director of innovation at FIFA, the goal of the partnership is not to automate decision-making but to elevate it. AI, he said, must support human judgment while making its reasoning visible and accountableespecially in a sport where trust is everything. At the Club World Cup last year in the U.S., we tested a system we call advanced semi-automated offside. The key idea is that the moment the system has a high confidence that all the data is correct, that information is immediately sent to the assistant referee, he says. With this advanced semi-automated offside system, we are setting a new benchmark. [It] will shape expectations for accuracy and fairness in tournaments to come. Referee View is also returningthis time enhanced. Body-worn referee cameras, stabilized using AI, will provide broadcast-ready footage from the officials point of view. FIFA expects the feature to give billions of fans unprecedented perspectives on the games most critical moments. Holzmüller explained that creating precise player avatars before the start of the tournament gives the system additional context, allowing it to determine offside situations with much higher confidence. When the system reaches that level of certainty, it can send direct guidance to assistant referees, reducing the need to delay decisions. Under current rules, delayed flags often mean play continues longer than necessary, increasing the risk of collisions and injuries before the ball goes out of play. By improving both confidence and speed, the technology helps avoid those situations and reduces unnecessary risk on the pitch. AI Could Reshape Sport Strategies Lenovo helped us create an end-to-end process, starting from scanning the playerswhich takes only one secondthrough to having a digital asset platform where this information can be used across different use cases, says Holzmüller. Our thought behind integrating new technologies is to make the game fairer, clearer, and safer for everyone involved. Kurtoglu believes that deeper integration of AI and data could reshape how teams approach tactics, decision-making, and tournament planning ahead of the World Cup. Strategies could change. It comes down to how you translate data into insights. The more data you have, the more analytics and AI you can apply, and eventually that will change tactics, analysis and even commentary, he says. That is why this is such an exciting moment for sports and technology. If Lenovos bet holds, the worlds biggest sporting events will raise the bar for how AI and analytics operate far beyond the stadium.
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E-Commerce
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