Linda Louis | Co-Founder & Managing Editor
How many of you have been asked such questions:
“Did you use AI tools to write this content?”
“Why does your content show highly robotic?”
“Why is your content showing 70% AI?”
And was your response something like: “Agh! Blast! How can that be? I wrote it myself!”
If so, then you aren’t alone in this. Many content creators have been facing the same barrage of questions from their clients all over the world. If you go to any of the social media platforms and engage in any of the groups there that comprise content writers, content editors, or content creators in general, you will find thousands of similar interactions among people facing the same despair.
Content creators are confused, disappointed, flabbergasted, and even unsure about how to proceed when faced with such situations and how they could convince their clients about their earnestness, commitment, and diligence in their work when they suspect they are, well, CHEATING!
For a genuine content writer, being accused of using AI tools is worse than saying that they are copying from somewhere, aka plagiarising their content. Being tagged as a cheat or a thief never feels good — no matter which profession you are in — especially if you have created the content yourself — starting from the grunt work needed to research the subject to writing up the final draft and putting in due diligence for running thorough grammar and plagiarism checks.
So, what CAN you do?
Let’s see…
Ways To Prevent Your Final Draft From Resembling An AI-Generated Content
You must understand that most AI writing tools use a mix of programmes known as “natural language processing (NLP) algorithms”, “machine learning”, and “large language models (LLMs)” to “generate” written content. These tools can apparently spot specific patterns in large written text and analyse human inputs (that we have now come to identify as “prompts”) to finally “generate” textual outputs that are similar to how a normal person would naturally speak or write.
This whole bunch of programmes that these tools employ ultimately crawl the internet for relevant information based on your prompts. Naturally, the language, tone, and approach will depend on what relevant information is available online and how you have framed your query, aka prompt.
Now, there are a few ways to ensure your content does not resemble something that ChatGPT or some other generative AI writing tool could have come up with. However, there are a few hindrances.
But before that, let’s check out our options:
#1. Using AI-detection & plagiarism tools
You can use reliable AI detection tools, such as Originality, Content Scale, or CopyLeaks, to “detect” AI-generated content. However, their accuracy is not absolute. It can deem any human-created content, especially that of the written kind, to be AI-generated.
Using a good and trusted plagiarism tool or even an AI text modification tool can help you change the text to prevent your content from being flagged as AI-generated. However, such modifications, too, have their downsides. Often you would notice that the first draft, once edited for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, is usually of the best quality. Repeated modifications, merely to beat the AI detectors, can compromise the overall quality of the content.
That means you may need to (not just re-edit but) rewrite it like a fresh copy.
#3. Writing everything from scratch
Ah! This trick works for everyone, every time, whether it is to avoid plagiarism or be labelled as AI-generated content. If you are a novice or an experienced writer, writing on a topic is much simpler and hassle-free if you were to write from scratch. You won’t have to worry about plagiarism or being spotted by AI detectors. It will be entirely YOUR TAKE on the matter.
It is always a good idea to understand the subject first, refer to different websites and direct sources, and write it the way you would verbally explain it to someone you know.
Note: Copy-pasting information and then rewriting it is never a good way of creating content. It increases the chances of plagiarised content being left behind and also of being flagged by AI detectors. What’s more — it can severely damage your overall quality of content — and ultimately — your reputation.
#4. Come up with your own angle, opinion, or stance
While writing on any topic, we usually look up online to see what others have written about it, gauge their approach, and understand the subject. We may refer to ten websites. However, if we follow the tone or approach of any of the existing articles online, chances are that the detector tools will flag your article as “plagiarised”, “AI-generated”, or “robotic”.
Instead, start your introduction with a fresh perspective. Incorporate your own ideas and opinions, wherever possible, in the entire copy, and write the conclusions as if you are an expert on the subject, giving some invaluable advice.
Chuck all rented ideas. They are a content writer’s worst enemy.
Will These Methods Really Solve The Problem?
While these do certainly help, the funny thing about AI-detection tools is that if you were to check on them to determine if the copy that you wrote from scratch is deemed original or human, you would find the results contradicting that. These tools will often lay claim to everything you write — no matter how you derived the information you used or how you presented it.
So, what is the solution?
Well, apart from the above-mentioned methods, there is nothing we can do as writers and editors. I suppose we must wait for AI to be more intelligent to determine the difference between content that is written by a “real” human and that by a “bot”.
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