AI detectors are creating a new era of distrust

Instead of comparing pieces of written content, AI detectors like GPTZero, Pangram, and the one created by Turnitin rely on their own AI models to guess whether something might not be human-written — a process that’s arguably even murkier than matching text on the web. As noted by GPTZero, AI detectors use an algorithm to analyze a text’s wording, rhythm, and structure, as well as to pick up on patterns in length and tone that may be more common in AI-written text. This relatively subjective evaluation isn’t as solid as something you could back up by matching text online, and can get tripped up by writers who speak English as a second language. Despite this, Turnitin has said that its AI detector falsely flags less than 1 percent of human-written content as AI, while Pangram claims its false positive rate is just 1 in 10,000. GPTZero claims it has a similarly low rate of mistaking human content for AI.