# Hedging preamble Part of [The AI Tells Index](https://feedsquad.com/ai-tells). A tell signals low effort. It does not identify an author. Skilled writers produce every shape listed here, some of them daily, and automated detectors misread those writers for it at rates measured above 60 percent on non-native English prose. Nothing in this index proves that a machine wrote anything. Read an entry as one piece of evidence to weigh against the false-positive notes printed beside it. ## Facts - Id: hedging-preamble - Category: Rhetorical and discourse (rhetorical) - Subcategory: hedging - Also known as: It's worth noting, It's important to note, worth noting that - Status: Contested. Credible people dispute that this signals anything at all. - Severity: medium - Evidence grade: corroborated (named independently by multiple credible secondary sources) - Languages: en - Added: 2026-08-15 - Updated: 2026-08-17 - Page: https://feedsquad.com/ai-tells/hedging-preamble ## Description A softening scaffold placed in front of a plain statement. Lakoff named the device a hedge in 1972, and Hyland remains the standard reference for hedging in academic prose, where it is a taught obligation rather than a tic. The catalogued version prepends the scaffold to a sentence nobody would have challenged. Contested by construction: this family sits inside the Academic Formulas List, so the base rate in careful human writing is high and unmeasured. ## Why it reads as machine-written Assistants are trained to avoid overclaiming, and a preamble is the most visible cheap way to comply. The scaffold also buys several words before the sentence has to commit to anything. The result reads as caution with no exposure behind it, because the statement that follows is usually not contentious in the first place. ## Detection Type: deterministic (a regular expression, run as written) Scope: sentence ECMAScript regular expression. The build validator compiles it and tests it against this entry's own specimens. ```regex \b(?:it['’]s|it\s+is)\s+(?:worth\s+(?:noting|mentioning|pointing\s+out)|important\s+to\s+(?:note|remember|mention))\s+that\b ``` Flags: gi ## Examples Constructed specimens. Written for this index. Never quoted from anyone's posts. ### Specimen 1 Before, exhibiting the tell: > It's worth noting that the deadline may shift depending on a number of external factors. Timelines of this kind are rarely as fixed as they look on a plan, and most teams build in some room without ever saying so. What matters is keeping everyone informed as things develop. Surprises are much easier to absorb early. After, repaired: > The deadline moves if the certification body misses its own 30 April response window. It missed that window last year and the whole schedule went back a month. Note: Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen. ### Specimen 2 Before, exhibiting the tell: > It is important to note that results can vary considerably between teams. After, repaired: > Two of our five teams saw nothing change at all. Both were already publishing daily before the switch, which is most of the explanation. Note: Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen. ## False positives Who legitimately writes this way. Academic hedging is a documented and explicitly taught register, and Hyland describes it as a requirement of research writing rather than a weakness. Medical, legal and regulatory writers hedge because their liability requires it, and a clinician who writes that a result may vary is stating the truth about the evidence. Second-language academic writers use lexical bundles from the taught formula lists at higher rates than native speakers, which is exactly the population that detection tools already misjudge. A reviewer checks the sentence underneath the scaffold: if the claim could be wrong, the hedge is doing real work; if the claim is uncontroversial, the scaffold is filler. ## Model attribution Reported for chat assistants broadly. Anthropic publishes dated system prompts that suppress several neighbouring words, which is first-party evidence of a default pull toward this register, though those prompts name words rather than this frame. No source separates model families on the preamble itself. ## Platform notes - wikipedia: The guide lists softening scaffolds among the signs while its own manual of style treats unattributed hedging as a separate editorial problem with its own shortcut. ## Sources 1. Wikipedia: Signs of AI writing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing (tier: community; accessed 2026-08-14) 2. vale-ai-tells, 111 machine-checkable rules https://github.com/tbhb/vale-ai-tells (tier: community; accessed 2026-08-14) 3. Proofed, AI editing checklist https://proofed.com/knowledge-hub/ai-editing-checklist-how-to-spot-and-fix-ai-writing-patterns/ (tier: community; accessed 2026-08-14) 4. tellsign word and phrase lists https://github.com/ctkrug/tellsign (tier: community; accessed 2026-08-14) ## Status history Ids are permanent. A retired tell keeps its id and its page. - 2026-08-15, Contested: Opened as contested. Four independent lists carry the family, including Wikipedia and a professional editing service, but the same formulas appear in the Academic Formulas List as taught academic register. Hedging is a documented obligation in academic, medical and legal writing, so the entry ships with the contest on the record. ## License CC BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Attribution: The AI Tells Index, feedsquad.com/ai-tells Reuse the data, including commercially. Keep the attribution line. --- Dataset version 1.0.0. Schema version 1. Part of [FeedSquad](https://feedsquad.com). Built by [Herman Foundry](https://hermanfoundry.com) from Levi, Finnish Lapland.