Dead Writing Theory

The theory: since ChatGPT, the writing on the web has been collapsing into one machine voice. Same words, same rhythm, same punctuation, everywhere. We think that deserves measuring, not just repeating.

Case 1

27 years of company homepages: the words changed, the sentences did not.

2,950 homepages from 158 long-lived UK and US companies, one archived capture a year from 2000 to 2026, each site compared with itself before and after ChatGPT.

AI-era marketing words ("seamless", "unlock", "streamline") nearly doubled after ChatGPT: 1.05 to 1.93 uses per 1,000 words.
But they were already rising: 0.45 per 1,000 words in 2012, 1.29 in 2019.
The em dash was on 3% of homepages in 2000, 27% in 2022 and 38% in 2026.
The sentence shapes people blame on AI did not increase at all.

Read the full study (SGR-004) on ScriptGrain · Ours: made by the same studio that runs this site.

More cases coming

This site is being built. Each new study becomes a case. Got a sighting of dead writing? hello@deadwritingtheory.com