active · discourse · first recorded 2026-07-02 · registers: hn
The engagement-bait close, and “curious” as a social lubricant in general: “I'm curious how it handles…”, “genuinely curious whether…”. 8× the human rate; widely complained about on social platforms.
…I'm curious how it handles large captures and filtering performance…
occurrences per 10k words, measured 2026-09-28 (run #15, 3 current + 3 vintage models)
| current AI | vintage AI (2024/25) | humans (matched) | canon (great pre-AI prose) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pooled | 1.40 | 1.34 | 0.12 | 0.03 |
| hn | 3.63 | — | 0.26 | |
| cooking | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| parenting | 0.00 | — | 0.00 | |
| 0.00 | — | — |
| run | date | AI /10k | vs humans |
|---|---|---|---|
| #2 | 2026-07-02 | 2.86 | ×26 vs humans |
| #3 | 2026-07-02 | 2.85 | only in AI |
| #4 | 2026-07-06 | 2.02 | ×17 vs humans |
| #5 | 2026-07-13 | 1.57 | ×12 vs humans |
| #6 | 2026-07-20 | 3.17 | ×29 vs humans |
| #7 | 2026-07-27 | 2.33 | ×9.8 vs humans |
| #8 | 2026-08-03 | 2.40 | ×19 vs humans |
| #9 | 2026-08-10 | 2.66 | only in AI |
| #10 | 2026-08-17 | 2.33 | ×10 vs humans |
| #11 | 2026-08-31 | 2.63 | only in AI |
| #12 | 2026-09-07 | 3.48 | ×29 vs humans |
| #13 | 2026-09-14 | 1.63 | ×14 vs humans |
| #14 | 2026-09-21 | 2.04 | ×5.8 vs humans |
| #15 | 2026-09-28 | 1.40 | ×11 vs humans |
regex: \b((genuinely|i'?m|i'?d be) )?curious (what|how|whether|if|to)\b