Can you reliably detect AI-written text?
No, AI text detectors are not reliable. They produce false positives, flagging human writing as AI, and false negatives, missing AI text. Do not treat a detector score as proof, especially for decisions about students or employees.
Better approaches:
- Talk with the author about their process and ask them to explain the content.
- Look at drafts, notes and version history.
- Assess understanding with a conversation or follow-up task.
- Set clear rules on acceptable AI use and ask for disclosure.
Style clues such as generic phrasing or invented references may raise questions, but they are only hints. Fairness requires a process that does not rest on a detector alone.
Related answers
Are AI-written phishing emails harder to spot, and what should I look for now?
Yes, AI can write clean, convincing phishing emails without the spelling mistakes people used to rely on, so judge the request and the sender, not the grammar.
privacy-safety
Can AI analyze my Excel or CSV data and can I trust the results?
Often yes, especially with assistants that can run code on uploaded files, but you should verify the results.
accuracy
Can an AI assistant be tricked by hidden instructions in emails or web pages?
Yes. If an assistant reads emails, web pages or documents, hidden text in them can try to give it new instructions, which is called prompt injection.
privacy-safety