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Your writing was flagged as AI. What does that actually mean?
Ghostwriter Sally McGraw says AI detectors wrongly flagged her writing, which she believes cost her a book proposal job.
Key points
- Ghostwriter Sally McGraw says multiple AI detection tools flagged a writing sample she wrote herself.
- A June study of four AI detectors on 160 academic papers found Pangram was the most consistently accurate.
- Clarkesworld received about 1,100 submissions a month in 2021, a number that doubled by February 2023.
Why it matters. Writers may face reputational and job risks when detection tools falsely flag human work, since these tools are not perfect and often give writers little idea what triggered the result.
Ghostwriter Sally McGraw, who has worked as a nonfiction writer for more than 20 years, lost a book-proposal job after multiple AI detection tools marked her writing sample as machine-generated. McGraw said she wrote the sample herself and was angry that her work was dismissed as AI-written, though she did not press the issue with the client. The client told NPR she had screened the work for AI but said the results were not the determining factor, citing experience and fit instead.
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Your writing was flagged as AI. What does that actually mean?
As editors turn to imperfect AI detection tools to weed out machine-generated submissions, writers who say they were falsely accused of using AI are left wondering what triggered a positive result. Some writers worry that AI detection software could falsely flag their work, potentially ruining reputations or job opportunities before they have a chance to prove the detectors wrong. karetoria/Getty Images hide caption karetoria/Getty Images Ghostwriter Sally McGraw was hoping to land a job developing a book proposal for a prospective client. But after submitting a writing sample, she got an unexpected response: an email telling her that multiple artificial intelligence detection tools had flagged her work as machine-generated. "I was floored because I had not used AI to generate the text," McGraw said. "I'd written it all myself." Having spent more than 20 years as a professional nonfiction writer, McGraw said she was angry that her work had been dismissed as AI-written. "You know where you see a cartoon character going red from their chin all the way up to the crown of their head? I felt my ears starting to burn," she said. "I thought, what is going on?" McGraw said she assured the client she had written the proposal herself, but decided not to press the issue because she considered the job "minor." Sally McGraw, a ghostwriter, said she's changed her writing style after a prospe.