Prompt
How to make ChatGPT write less like a bot: two prompts and one instruction
The short version
Ask ChatGPT to list the patterns on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" page, turn them into ten short rules and paste the result into Custom instructions. It then applies them in every chat. Both prompts and the settings path are below.
Two prompts
- New ChatGPT chat: send the first prompt.
- In the same chat, send the second: it turns the patterns into a ready instruction.
- Settings → Personalization → Custom instructions opens a page with one field. Paste the instruction below what's already there, don't delete your old text, and save.
Find Wikipedia's page "Signs of AI writing" and list every pattern it describes that gives away AI-written text, with one short example of each.
A new ChatGPT chat.
Turn these patterns into writing rules you never break. Then write one permanent instruction I'll paste into my custom instructions: one opening line, then 10 rules, each rule one line of 12 words at most.
The same chat. Ten short rules fit the free plan's 1,500 characters.
What you get
It works in every chat: the instruction applies to each new conversation. In my test the "after" text sounded far less like a bot, but not perfect: it still kept a list and a cliché. The rules reduce the tells, they don't remove them.
Questions people also ask
What is the "Signs of AI writing" page?
A Wikipedia page kept by its editors that lists the patterns that give away AI-written text, such as "not just this, but that", lists of three and the word "pivotal". Russian Wikipedia has its own page for it.
Where are custom instructions in ChatGPT?
Settings → Personalization → Custom instructions. It opens a page with one field; what you paste there applies to every chat.
Does the "no em dashes" rule work now?
In November 2025 TechCrunch reported that OpenAI said it had fixed ChatGPT's em dash problem. A rule like "don't use em dashes" can go into the same instruction.
Will this work in other assistants?
I tested it in ChatGPT only. The idea carries to any assistant with standing instructions, but I haven't tested how well it works there.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Signs of AI writing
- Wikipedia (Russian): Признаки сгенерированности текста
- OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT custom instructions
- Press: TechCrunch, “OpenAI says it’s fixed ChatGPT’s em dash problem”, 14 Nov 2025
Other companies’ features and prices change. Every statement about them rests on these pages, as they read on the date above.