It’s 2024 and AI-generated content is everywhere. From independent bloggers to global news sites, many of us will unsuspectingly read AI-generated text somewhere throughout each day.
If you are reading AI text, it has likely been put through a tool called an AI detector.
These tools help to identify the likelihood that content was created by an AI platform like ChatGPT.
But how do AI detectors work exactly?
Here’s everything you need to know about AI detectors, how they work and how they can improve the quality of AI-generated content.
How do AI Detectors Work?
AI detectors utilize two types of technology to detect AI-generated content: machine learning and natural language processors.
Both of these allow the AI detector to identify predictable language patterns, syntax, and complexity levels.
If the detector recognizes enough of these patterns, it provides a likelihood that the text was generated by AI.
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But what do AI detectors compare their findings to? Most AI detectors have been trained on thousands, if not millions, of datasets.
This helps the detector identify and compare the text example to pieces of AI-generated content that it has already learned.
So, not only does the detector find patterns in the writing that are indicative of AI generation, but it also compares this to thousands of examples of AI text.
While you might think this is an added layer of security, we must always keep in mind that AI detectors are determining the likelihood that the text was created by AI.
A detector can never say with 100% precision that text has been created by AI or a human.
Two other terms you might hear when discussing AI detectors are the perplexity and burstiness of the content. These seem like less technical terms, so you might be wondering what they mean.
Perplexity refers to how confusing or complex the text might be for a reader. Literally, what are the chances this will leave the reader perplexed? Why is this important? Because AI-generated content usually oversimplifies the text and has a low perplexity level.
Burstiness has to do with the flow of the sentences and the structure in which they are written. If you’ve ever read AI content you’ll know that the sentence length and structures do not vary much.
This is what gives it that mechanical and robotic feel when you read it. Human writers tend to use varying sentence lengths. This effectively gives the text a more conversational and natural feel.
How Reliable and Accurate are AI Detector Tools?
Herein lies the conundrum of using an AI detector tool: How reliable are AI detectors? This concept has been a battleground between those who believe in AI detection tools and those who do not.
If an AI detection tool isn’t reliable, what is the point of even using one?
Overall, it seems that AI detectors tend to over-analyze text with the results skewed to being AI-generated.
This means that more often than not, an AI detector will lean towards text being AI-created unless there are imperfections like spelling or grammatical errors.
False positives also tend to occur on a fairly frequent basis if the human writer has a predictable and consistent style.
With that being said, AI detectors can be efficient in weeding out completely AI-generated text.
Sites like Google have much more powerful AI detectors that can flag when a website or blog has AI-generated content and is trying to earn ad revenue from it.
Unless you put the time and effort to humanize the work, it is fairly easy for detectors to spot AI text.
Can AI Content Detectors be Wrong?
Absolutely. This is why it is critical to understand that detectors only flag the probability of the text being AI-generated.
It should never be used as hard evidence that someone is passing off AI content as their own.
This is especially true at Universities or Colleges where professors are using AI detectors to ensure students are not cheating. False positives and negatives have resulted in punishments for honest students.
Common Problems with Most AI Checkers
Most AI checkers are limited to their datasets, which can lead to varying results when scanning content. These datasets also need to be constantly updated to stay relevant.
Language models are always evolving and if AI detectors do not update their datasets, they can be using old logic and fail to identify better AI-generated content.
Another issue is that AI detectors are poor at identifying AI content that has been slightly altered by humans.
This means that if a writer were to use AI text and change it to improve the perplexity or burstiness, the AI detector wouldn’t be able to flag it as AI content.
Now, you might say that if a writer takes the time to edit and alter the content, then it shouldn’t be flagged as AI text. However you might feel about it, the bottom line is that AI detectors can be easily fooled by human writers.
AI Detectors vs. Plagiarism Checkers
If you’ve been researching AI detectors, you have no doubt come across plagiarism checkers as well. What is the difference between an AI detector and a plagiarism checker?
A plagiarism checker scans the text and compares it to a massive database of published work on the internet.
Unlike an AI detector, a plagiarism checker does not care about who or what created the content, but rather if the content was copied from another source.
Also unlike an AI detector, a plagiarism checker is black and white: there is no likelihood or probability involved.
Typically, if a phrase matches five or more consecutive words from another source, it will be flagged as plagiarism.
Can Plagiarism Checkers Detect AI-Generated Content
While the plagiarism checker’s job is not to detect AI-generated content, there are some occasional times when the two overlap. Why would this happen?
Believe it or not, some AI language models have provided plagiarised content as an output. It might not be intentional, but AI tools can accidentally copy phrases from another source on the internet.
This is another red flag for passing off AI-generated content as your own. Writers should be extra vigilant to run their content through a plagiarism checker as well.
There is a gray area with AI detection tools but if you are a paid writer that is publishing plagiarized work, there can be some real-life consequences.
Difference Between AI Content and Plagiarized Content
While there is the occasional overlap between the two types of content, they are usually on opposite ends of the spectrum. AI-generated content tends to be original, albeit written in a mechanical style.
This content needs to be fact-checked by a human writer and scanned for potential incidental plagiarism before being submitted or published.
Plagiarized content can be produced by either a human writer or an AI tool. When a human creates plagiarized content it is usually intentional.
If an AI tool creates plagiarized content it is almost always accidental. Despite this difference, content should still be scanned for plagiarism whether written by a human or AI tool.
Does Google Penalize AI-Generated Content
This is a question with some layered answers. On the surface level, Google does not penalize sites for publishing AI-generated content.
Google’s updated policies do not care if you use AI text, AI images, or any other form of AI content on your site. Your page will not be taken down, nor will your ad revenue be diminished.
Several prominent sites use AI tools to create content and have not been punished in terms of SEO ranking. But what Google has done is update its search ranking algorithm.
In a recent update, Google stressed that firsthand experience and being an experienced expert on the topic is critical for the page to rank well.
If you are using AI content, it won’t include any first-hand knowledge or experience, since that can only be provided by a human.
Does Google Penalize Plagiarized Content
While you might think this would be an obvious penalty, it’s surprising to know that Google doesn’t penalize plagiarized content.
Nearly 30% of websites have duplicate content which would require Google to penalize millions of sites.
Google Search Advocate John Mueller has revealed that duplicate content will not affect your search ranking.
If the Google algorithm finds the same content on multiple pages, it will choose which page to rank based on how helpful it is to the reader.
The bad news is that if someone copies your content, they could potentially outrank you using your work!
How do I Make AI Text Undetectable?
The key to making AI text undiscoverable is to avoid being flagged as AI content. This may be harmful if you are using this text for school or professional purposes.
It also has the potential to harm your search rankings if your AI-generated content is not optimized for SEO.
But how to bypass ai content detection? Here are some ways to make your text undetectable.
Manually Update The Content
This method requires the most work by the writer but is also free and you get complete creative freedom over the content.
Manually updating the syntax and sentence structure can go a long way in preventing your AI text from being flagged.
This does require a knowledge of how AI content detectors work and what they are looking for. Here are some things you can manually fix:
- Sentence length and structure
- Syntax
- Word choice
- Add transition words to extend your writing
- Add examples of first-hand experience
- Optimize keywords
Ask AI to Re-Write Your Content
Believe it or not, you can ask tools like ChatGPT or Jasper.AI to re-write their own content.
You can even use specific inputs that instruct the app to use more natural language.
Re-writing the content with the same app will force it to use different language and vocabulary. Oddly enough, a second or even third time through will yield much more positive results when running this content through an AI detector.
Use AI Scrambling Tools
If you simply do not have the time to manually edit all your articles, then using AI scrambling tools can be a godsend.
These tools can take your AI-generated content and humanize it by rearranging it in a way that will pass AI detector tests.
AI-humanizing tools know exactly what AI detectors are looking for and can apply this to your content. If you are still getting flagged by an AI detector, you can run your content through the AI scrambler multiple times.
Each time should yield a more refined output and a higher chance of making that AI text undetectable.
And if you want the best solution possible, then read the next topic:
The Best Tool to Make AI Content Undetectable
Sometimes it’s all in the name. The best tool to make AI content undetectable is Undetectable.ai. This tool is an AI detector and humanizer all in one and recognizes content from the leading language models including ChatGPT4, Claude AI, Google Bard, and JasperAI.
It is simple, easy to use, and provides the highest AI detection bypass success rate in the industry.
How does UndetectableAI work? Simply paste your AI-generated text into the content box and select the Readability difficulty and Purpose of your writing. Click the Humanize button and receive your output:
As you can see, Undetectable bypasses some of the best AI detection tools on the market including ZeroGPT, OpenAI, and Copyleaks.
Another positive is how reasonably priced it is. New users can sign up today for as low as $9.99 per month for 10,000 words or $5.00 per month for 10,000 words if paid on an annual basis.
What is the future of AI-generated content detection?
This is the billion dollar question that everyone is asking. It is no secret that the introduction of AI-generated content and AI content detection has completely changed the SEO landscape.
Content creation is being produced at the fastest pace in history, with AI creation allowing writers to scale up to a much higher volume.
As AI language models continue to evolve, so too will AI content detection. We’ve already seen three generations of ChatGPT since it was released in November 2022, and the fifth one is anticipated to be released by 2024. Each iteration has been much more powerful and intelligent than its predecessor.
AI-generated content will no doubt improve, making it more difficult for AI detectors to determine how the text was created.
Eventually, AI detectors will need to rely on attributes other than perplexity and burstiness as AI tools will likely be able to create content that is indistinguishable from human text.
Conclusion
So now you’ve learned about the magic behind how AI detectors work.
These tools rely on large datasets and predictable patterns found within AI-generated content.
Bypassing these detectors can be tricky, but using tools like UndetectableAI can certainly help.
While the accuracy of these AI writing detectors is debatable, we must always remember that they only provide the likelihood that the content was created by AI.
The good news is that if your content is ever flagged by an AI detector, you now know exactly how to change that result.