The Big Contest: Ask AI to Guess — Human or AI
(This Week’s Focus: AI and Storytelling

Now it is time to submit Option 1 and Option 2 of the beginning of the novel to AI and ask AI to guess which is which. Who writes the better tale? A human or AI?

Let’s review what the contest was.

First, a statement about the beginning of a novel was given to a human (me) and then to an AI chatbot. Neither knew what the other was doing. 

Here’s how the novel began: “A traveler discovers an abandoned notebook in an aging train station.” Two to three paragraphs were to be written about that. Here’s what Microsoft’s Copilot has to say:

Prompt: Which is human and which is AI chatbot? (Option 1 and 2 were sent in a previous prompt)

Copilot Response: Ah, now we’re turning this into a game—I love it.

Here’s my guess: Option 1 was written by a human, and Option 2 was written by an AI chatbot.

Why? Option 1 has a natural flow of thought, with internal monologue shaping the experience. It feels like a human perspective, organically unfolding as emotions shift. The sentence structure is varied, with subtle pauses and a conversational rhythm. While there’s intrigue, the focus is very much on the protagonist’s personal reaction—something that suggests a human’s intuitive understanding of emotional pacing.

Option 2, on the other hand, feels highly polished, poetic, and intentionally crafted for mood—a common trait in AI-generated writing. The descriptions are extra sensory-rich, almost theatrical, which can sometimes be a hallmark of AI striving to maximize atmosphere. The phrasing is methodical, each sentence contributing to an overarching tone rather than a personal experience. The line, “If you’ve found this, the story is now yours to tell,” has an almost cinematic feel—classic AI ambiguity designed to provoke curiosity.

The AI chatbot got it right. And so ends an interesting AI experiment.