Spotting the Use of AI in the World of Whisky

Thursday, 09 October 2025 at 07:00

AI is becoming increasingly prominent in our society. Some are in favor, some oppose it, and still others reside somewhere in the middle. But how can you actually recognize AI? And how do we collectively see this innovation?

If you're looking for whisky news globally, you'll encounter various sources and similar stories scattered around. Logically so, as everybody wants to (be the first to) report it.

But what do you, the whisky readers, prefer? A text written by flesh-and-blood humans, or is AI allowed to do it? Could AI assist?

The strength of Whisky Monkeys from the start was that we journeyed across the country, conducted interviews, and processed this content in a good old-fashioned way. Our texts are written by flesh-and-blood people. We've experimented with AI, only to quickly discover where our passion lies - in the pen.

AI versus Real People

Whisky is all about craftsmanship and writing isn't different, right? But if you let technology do something for you, anyone can do it. So what's the added value for you, the reader, the consumer? On the other hand, we acknowledge that technology can be tremendously helpful. Transcribing an interview in the old-fashioned way can take 5-6 hours. If you ask AI to organize topics, all of a sudden it can be done much quicker.

We are noticing a shift in media outlets. Both in whisky magazines and whisky websites, it is becoming more prevalent to see AI being employed instead of people. Often, it’s easily recognizable when this is the case.

How to Identify AI-use in Texts

Maybe you're wondering how to identify such texts. Below we'll explain how to recognize AI in whisky content:

When an author, whose content you've read before, suddenly becomes very creative. It's too creative, because you know that person couldn't write like that without a computer. They're lacking a personal touch and voice.

A text containing hyphens. The moment you see a sentence with a mid-sentence hyphen like this '-', there's a high chance AI has been used. Generally, a human wouldn't phrase it that way.

When words appear in texts such as ‘pro tip’, and sentences with many colons as prefaces

Comparisons followed by creative comments that you can tell the author didn't come up with themselves. It's too amusing and seems overdone.

Texts where the reader is addressed as 'you' more often than before.

Exclamation marks in titles (especially if it didn't happen before).

When a text is logically structured with subtitles like why, how, etc, and has a contact at the end (especially if it didn't happen before).

Emojis in texts (this is not always the case).

There are many more tricks. These are characteristics of how ChatGPT composes texts.

What are your thoughts on AI in whisky content?

Now, our question to you: what are your thoughts on the use of AI? Is it a positive development or not? And would you like to see whisky articles crafted by AI? Should such articles carry a disclaimer saying: 'This article was created by AI.’?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this.