Lexical shifts: words & expressions that lost their cool since Gen-AI

Rethinking the academic tone I once aspired to

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.” — Coco Chanel

Artificial intelligence, in its essence, acts as a reflective surface, almost tauntingly presenting us with our own image and saying, “Look, this is who you are!” It has a way of uncovering both our treasured values and our disregarded flaws, magnifying, at times, the less flattering aspects of our nature. Before the era of Chat GPT entered the scene, my doctoral journey was steeped in extensive reading. And when I say extensive, I mean immersing myself in texts tirelessly, turning pages both digitally and physically. As a mother juggling academia and full-time employment, I seized every moment to engage with my readings, whether through traditional books or e-books, while driving about to accommodate my bustling schedule and my kids many rugby interludes.

My reading list spanned a vast array of subjects, necessary for my coursework, comprehensive exams, and dissertation research, not to mention keeping abreast of developments in AI and Computational Rhetoric. Emerging from this intense period of scholarly exploration, and feeling like a literary gladiator, I felt equipped to engage in intellectual…