I hang out on a prolific, partisan news-discussion site, and it is obvious to some of the commentators that inferior Ai is being used, and a live proof-reader is not being employed.... or, if one is, he/she/whomever is semi-literate.
This week, several of us noted an erroneous use of Litotes. When in doubt, go for Cambridge.
The journalist wrote of an unflappable senior administrator in the current Administration --who was testifying before one or other of the branches of Congress-- that he was "not unfazed".
"Not unfazed" is Litotes. The meaning is a wittier variant of saying "fazed", of course. In fact, it was the interrogating Senator who was visibly outraged, or "fazed" by a remark from the testifier about the Senator's career in the creation of fiction.
As far as I know, the good Senator does not write or orally relate alien djinn romances, but there are many types of fiction. Or alleged fiction. One term that I remember from my youth was calling a lie a "terminological inexactitude". (Attributed to Sir Winston Churchill).
The EPA administrator was the one who was "unfazed".
Another figure of speech that I have noticed on aggressively-moderated sites is the use of Spoonerism, not for the sake of humor, and not as a mistake, but as an intentional device to avoid censorship.
One can publish some fairly scandalous allegations, if one transposes two initial letters. Ai has not caught up with that... yet. Not about to test it by giving an example, but if you see a reference to something other than a rodeo horse or bull bucking... you might be getting warm.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
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