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and by wikiHow staff writer, Travis Boylls
. Stan Kats is a Professional Technologist and the COO and Chief Technologist for The STG IT Consulting Group in West Hollywood, California. Stan provides comprehensive technology solutions to businesses through managed IT services, and for individuals through his consumer service business, Stan's Tech Garage. Stan holds a BA in International Relations from The University of Southern California. He began his career working in the Fortune 500 IT world. Stan founded his companies to offer an enterprise-level of expertise for small businesses and individuals.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
AI-generated text has become a valuable tool to some, as well as bane to others. AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT can produce writing that appears to be human-like on the surface. For those who work in education or content creation, detecting AI writing can be a real challenge. Luckily, there are some subtle ways to detect if writing is from a person or a machine. This wikiHow article teaches you how to detect AI writing.
How to Detect AI Writing
There are many online tools you can use to detect AI writing. You should also check to see if the writing sounds too monotonous and unemotional. AI writing may contain a lot of repeating words and phrases. It may also contain information that is incorrect or details that are vague and unimportant.
Steps
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Check the writing with a tool. There are plenty of AI-detection tools online that you can use to detect if writing is AI-generated. However, AI detection tools do have their limitations and should not be relied upon solely. You should use multiple tools in conjunction with other verification methods. If possible, compare the writing with the student's or author's previous writing to see if there are any differences. Some AI detection tools include the following: [1] X Research source [2] X Research source
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Use a chatbot to detect AI writing. In addition to using one of the many AI detection tools online, you can also use AI itself to detect AI. For example, you could go the ChatGPT website and use the prompt "Did you write this?" Then upload or copy and paste the text. It will tell you if the text was written in ChatGPT or not. [3] X Research source
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The spelling, punctuation, and grammar may be abnormally correct. Most students are not expert writers. Even professional writers can have an occasional typo. If the writing is abnormally perfect, especially compared to their previous writing, this could be a red flag that the writing was AI-generated.
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AI frequently uses lists and bullet points to organize information. Students and new writers often struggle with how to organize information and may not write in this format. If you see a lot of bullet points and lists when it seems like most people wouldn't write this way, it could be AI-generated. [4] X Research source
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You might notice there is no human voice in the writing. If the writing doesn't use any informal words or phrases, or slang terms, this could be a sign that it was written in AI. AI writing will typically have an unemotional, robotic tone. It lacks personal experience and reflection. If the author doesn't express any strong emotions or strong opinions, this could be another red flag. [5] X Research source
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Fact-check against reputable sources. AI generates text by placing words together in a way that aligns with common patterns in the text it was trained on. It doesn't actually know anything. Furthermore, many AI chatbots are trained on outdated information. If the information is incorrect or cites made up sources, it could be generated by AI. [6] X Research source
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Look for an excessive amount of commonly used words and phrases. AI works by piecing together commonly used words and phrases from other sources. As a result, it tends to produce a large number of repeated words and phrases that a person wouldn't use in real life. It also uses a formulaic sentence structure, such as paragraphs that start with a strong opening sentence and end with a summary sentence.
- To see a comprehensive list of commonly used words and phrases that AI uses, check out this subreddit .
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AI writing contains a lot of filler. For example, if you are reading a product review and it includes a lot of detailed descriptions about things most people wouldn't find important, it could be written by AI. Likewise, if you are reading an article you found on Google and the information doesn't satisfy your search intent, it could be written by AI.
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AI may not follow guidelines or the correct format. If the assignment was to write an article in a specific format, and the writing deviates too much from that format, it could be written by AI. If a student is instructed to cite a specific data source and writing gets its source from somewhere else, that could be a sign of AI writing.
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References
- ↑ https://guides.library.ttu.edu/artificialintelligencetools/detection
- ↑ https://cte.ku.edu/careful-use-ai-detectors
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD1M3vavSAE
- ↑ https://www.techlearning.com/news/7-ways-to-detect-ai-writing-without-technology
- ↑ https://www.montclair.edu/faculty-excellence/teaching-resources/clear-course-design/practical-responses-to-chat-gpt/red-flags-detecting-ai-writing/
- ↑ https://surferseo.com/blog/detect-ai-content/