Everyone's using AI to write, and now you can spot it
Does knowing content is AI-written change its value to you?
Everyone's using AI to write. And now you can reliably detect when someone uses AI - and I've been testing it out for the last month*.
For today's UnfilteredFriday, let's talk about AI use in written content. And it's everywhere. LinkedIn posts, articles on LinkedIn, Medium, and Substack, and support responses via email or chat.
If you could detect if someone's using AI, would it change how you view it?
AI against AI
I've been using Pangram for the last month, which offers five free checks daily. A recent assignment saw me subscribing, and I've been going wild with it.
To be clear, I've always been wary of services that claim to detect AI-written content. After all, AI models are trained from human content, so how can it be detected?
Pangram detects AI use using a neural network trained to spot AI sentence structures, patterns and styles, and word choices. In a nutshell, the system detects AI using AI.
I can write a lot more about it, but let's just say that I've found it to have a very low false positive rate. Whilst it's possible to trick, the effort required is such that it's probably better to just write it manually from the start.
My 'problem' with AI
Over the last month, I've been somewhat astounded at just how much AI-written content I've detected, from LinkedIn posts and blog articles to even some published content.
Whilst I don't have a problem with AI use in general, it's unfortunate that the majority of AI content is poorly written for the precise reason it offers a shortcut to "generate" content quickly.
The result: cognitive workload shifts to readers, writing tends to be dull and fluffy, and reasoning often meanders.
It's bad enough that flagging an article as AI-written and avoiding it saves me from wasting time on mediocre content.
I've previously said I use AI a lot. I've since realised how I leverage AI isn't how most use it. In fact, none of my LinkedIn posts register as AI-written on Pangram. And I've written daily for almost three years - take your pick.
My question: Does knowing that content is written by AI change its value to you?
*There is always a chance of false positives.
