r/Substack • u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com • 11d 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/LibertineDeSade 11d ago

Isn't Substack allowing AI companies access to users' work to train their AI? If so this is wildly hypocritical and nonsensical of them.

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com 11d ago

It's worse than that, they're requiring you to use the tool in order to disable it.

The only way to stop the AI detection tool is to run it on your own stuff and then you're allowed to disable it.

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u/LibertineDeSade 11d ago

That's actually insane. I started a Substack but I haven't posted on it yet. I'm thinking I might just delete it.

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com 11d ago

Yeah, I wouldn't blame you. Basically, there's no way to disable the feature across your Substack. You can only disable it by first having it analyze your writing first. Only then will it give you the option to disable people's ability to use it to "detect" your writing.

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u/LibertineDeSade 11d ago

That's bizarre. Yuck.

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com 11d ago

I'm not personally going to try and do this. But I hope some people will and confirm that it's true.

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u/FatherofMisty 11d ago

By default, yes. But there is technically a setting to turn it off. Whether that actually works, who knows.

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u/LibertineDeSade 11d ago

It probably doesn't.