AI Detectors: The Most Terrifying Threat to Writers Everywhere

And you thought actual AI writing was the problem…

Addey Vaters
The Startup

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

You might see that headline and think I’m click-baiting you. I swear I’m not — I don’t make a habit of trying to scare people, and I generally don’t think framing anything as terrifying is beneficial. But there’s something a lot of writers might not know about, or at the very least something I didn’t know about, that could have truly terrifying implications for writers everywhere.

We all need to be wary of AI detectors.

You’ve probably heard about AI writing and how it’s a potential threat to writers everywhere, but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that AI generators are not the real threat. Sure, they’re a threat, but I’m more concerned with the many AI detectors created to determine whether a person’s writing is written by AI or all human-generated. That’s the real threat because, in my experience, these AI detectors are startlingly inconsistent.

What are AI detectors?

If you’re like me, at least like how I was up until a week ago, you probably have never heard much about AI writing tools, let alone AI detector tools! I’ve dabbled in AI only very recently when I tried out ChatGPT to write a form letter to send to my state senators…

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Addey Vaters
The Startup

Writer, reader, cat lover, and tea drinker. Romance novelist in progress. Words in Adroit Journal, Vita Brevis, & others. AddeyVaters.com