Checking Articles For A.I. Usage
Have You Ever Checked Someone's Article Against A.I.?
I wrote an article the other day titled “About Me, I Guess it’s Time I Jump on this Bandwagon.”
A few of you have asked me about writing an about-me article, but I have been struggling with the concept.
I find it challenging to write about myself without giving a bunch of surface answers or what I would consider to be surface answers, especially since my mental health hasn’t been the best lately.
However, I finally did it. I wrote about myself.
The problem? After I wrote it, I did my typical AI check to make sure it didn’t sound like it was written by AI (because it wasn’t).
I was surprised to see the AI detector labeled it as 60.3% AI written.
How could I write an article about myself all on my own, yet it comes up as “most likely written by AI”?
Worse yet, I tried to correct it, changing a few things around, changing the way I approached specific sentences, and removing some of the information about myself, then rechecked it, only to see that the percentage had gone up.
I did this four times before giving up.
It made me wonder if anyone else was having these issues with AI.
It’s not the first time I’ve written an article only to scrap it because it says it was written by AI or the percentage of AI written was too high for me to feel good about it.
After taking a writing break and complaining to my husband, I had the idea to check other authors’ articles against the AI detector.
The very first author I checked showed an 87.44% written by AI. I was shocked!
I try to keep my articles around 30% or lower most of the time, and I think the lowest “score” I’ve ever gotten was 1.42% (from the ones I’ve checked).
It makes me wonder if AI is evolving to the point of now recognizing self-written work as AI.
If someone is good with punctuation and crafting sentences, does it automatically think it’s AI?
I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else is having these issues.
I don’t want my work to be construed as AI-written, especially when, depending on how complicated I make it, it can sometimes take me hours to days to complete one article.
I continued and started checking other authors' articles—particularly those I admire and follow.
Here are some of their stats for “AI written”:
- 7.06%
- 34.36%
- 100%
- 10.09%
- 0% (I’d love to know how this happened. I honestly didn’t think it was possible.)
- 92.07%
- 2.4%
- 64.94%
- 0% (Wow! Seriously, how are you doing this?)
- 0% (By the same author above. Amazing!)
- 37.9%
- 5.09%
- 73.23%
- 10.18%
- 78.24%
- 94.19%
As you can see, the percentages are all over the place. So I have to question: Are the ones higher up written by AI, or is the author simply using big words?
Some of these stats that ranked higher in percentages were medical articles with medical terms.
To further extenuate my questions and concerns, here is an article I wrote checked against AI:
“Why You Should Keep A Notebook With Your Children.”
I must admit that I don’t always check my articles against AI before publishing. Sometimes, I don’t see the need. I know I wrote it, and I don’t see the need when it's so personal.
However, since writing this article, I started reviewing and checking my old articles against AI.
I didn’t always know about the AI Detector, so I haven't checked my older articles, either.
This one surprised me with 41.73%. It says, “Your text is likely human-written and may include parts generated by AI/GPT.”
If you look at the screenshots taken above, what concerns me are the highlighted parts, also known as the parts that were “generated by AI.” These are photo credits but also sentences structured around the word “I.”
“I would go to any length to let her know she’s still my baby, and I’m here for her no matter what.” True, and Yes!
“I was walking through T.J. Maxx.” — Yes, I was (Etc.).
Furthermore, let’s take a moment to check this very article against AI and see what it says…
Okay, so far so good…
Now, AI is just fighting back. I don’t want to be construed as AI-written. What’s so wrong about that, AI, hmm?
…And again, this sentence is still very true!
I don’t get it. What is AI trying to do to me? To us?
Let me know in the comments if you are struggling with this, too. What are some challenges you have encountered with AI?
Thank you to all who read this to the end. Your continued support and love mean the world to me.
As always, feel free to offer some claps of encouragement. XOXO Tammie. 🙂
- After completing this article, AI Detector says it was 6.86% AI-written, for those wondering.
*Tammie is an aspiring health and life coach with a background in the school system. She has worked with kids from preschool through sixth grade and the SPED and library departments. She has three kids, two dogs, and one amazing husband. You can often find her sitting on her front porch and watching all the cool kids play in her yard. You can also find her at https://www.tammie-fralick.com.