# Model self-insertion 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: model-self-insertion - Category: Model register (model-register) - Subcategory: assistant-leak - Also known as: as a large language model, as an AI language model - Status: Active. Currently signals low-effort writing. - Severity: high - 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/model-self-insertion ## Description A sentence in the artifact describes the writer as a language model. It usually arrives attached to a limitation: no opinions, no browsing, no access to the live schedule. The limitation is ordinary. The self-description is the tell. ## Why it reads as machine-written Wikipedia names self-insertion under speedy-deletion criterion G15 as an example of communication intended for the user, in the same list as collaborative address and cutoff disclaimers, and vale-ai-tells ships a self-reference rule covering the string family. Anyone reading their own copy deletes the line in one keystroke. Its presence means the paragraph was never read. ## 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 \bas an?\s+(?:AI|artificial intelligence|large language)\s*(?:language\s+)?model\b|\bI\s+am\s+an?\s+(?:AI|artificial intelligence)\s+(?:assistant|language\s+model|model)\b ``` Flags: i ## Examples Constructed specimens. Written for this index. Never quoted from anyone's posts. ### Specimen 1 Before, exhibiting the tell: > As an AI language model, I do not hold opinions on vendor choice, though the pricing page could be clearer. Both options have their strengths, and the right fit depends on what matters most to your team. Many organisations find the decision comes down to how a tool feels in daily use rather than to any single feature. After, repaired: > The pricing page could be clearer. We rewrote it in March 2026 after 11 support tickets in one month asked the same question about how seats are counted mid-cycle. Note: The disclaimer goes and the sentence gains the count that justified the rewrite. Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen. ### Specimen 2 Before, exhibiting the tell: > Booking opens on Monday. As a large language model I have no way to check live availability, so please confirm with the venue. Events of this kind fill at their own pace, and there is rarely much cost to arriving with time to spare rather than turning up on the hour. After, repaired: > Booking opens on Monday at 09:00. The hall holds 120 and last year it filled in nine days, so the waiting list is worth joining on the first morning. Note: A capability disclaimer becomes the practical detail a reader needs. Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen. ## False positives Who legitimately writes this way. Coverage of AI systems, satire, fiction with a machine narrator and reference pages like this one all contain the phrase by necessity. Any post arguing about what assistants can and cannot do quotes it. Product copy for an assistant uses it as an ordinary self-description. Exclude quotations, dialogue and transcripts before counting a hit. The remaining case is a first-person machine self-description inside copy published under a human name, which is a review failure. It reveals nothing about how the surrounding sentences were produced, and the surrounding sentences are what a reader came for. ## Model attribution Was common across assistant products in 2023 and is now suppressed by system prompts in most of them, which is why the sighting rate has fallen. A hit in 2026 output more often indicates an older model or a bare API call than any particular vendor. ## Platform notes - wikipedia: One of the named G15 examples. Editors report it as the sign that needs no discussion, since no encyclopaedia article has a first person that could be a model. ## Sources 1. Wikipedia: Criteria for speedy deletion, criterion G15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Criteria_for_speedy_deletion (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) ## Status history Ids are permanent. A retired tell keeps its id and its page. - 2026-08-15, Active: Active on Wikipedia criterion G15, which names self-insertion among the three signs, and on the vale-ai-tells self-reference rule, which was written independently against the same strings. Pattern verified on 2026-08-15 against both specimens and against three ordinary sentences, including one about a team that trained a large language model on ten years of tickets. ## 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.