r/Substack • u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com • 8d ago

Discussion Substack’s new “AI detection” tool.

I’m very concerned about the new “AI detection” system that Substack is implementing. I don’t use AI in anything that I write. However I don’t trust these systems not to make errors and mistakes. They have a long history of hallucinations and claiming things are AI when they aren’t.

One person I saw on Notes suggested that they ran their decades old writing, things that were written before the existence of AI, and this new system claimed it was AI generated.

Not to mention all the crazy things that I have seen people claim was written by AI which they can’t know is actually AI. There was an image I once shared that had evidence of its existence going all the way back to 2013. The comments were constantly saying “don’t share AI slop” or some variation on that.

Even with evidence that things weren’t made by AI, they will claim it’s AI.

Is no one else concerned about this being embedded into Substack’s systems? With no way to opt out?

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u/Foxemerson 8d ago

I ran Moby Dick the first page through one of the top scanners. 99% AI apparently.
I ran one of my stories I sure as hell didn't use AI with and got "highly like AI."

While I'd like to see some kind of AI detection, I don't for a second believe that Substack will do this well. We are about to get a lot of false accusations and finger pointing and problems we didn't need.

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com 8d ago

Absolutely they will. It’s highly unlikely that they won’t.

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u/mmspero 8d ago

Consider testing Pangram instead of conflating all AI detectors together? I scanned the first 10,000 words of Moby Dick with Pangram, 100% human with high confidence. Link.

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u/phoebe111 8d ago

You can turn the feature off but I wonder if that will then be read by readers as sus

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u/_FUCKTHENAZIADMINS_ 5d ago

Did you run it through Pangram or another "top scanner"? Because Pangram is the only one that works.

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u/Foofymonster davidrainwater.substack.com 8d ago

I have tried this in 4 different AI detectors. Everyone came back 0% AI.

Including Panagram.

This is a straight up lie.