My Article Was “Flagged as Written or Heavily Influenced by AI”
The problem: it wasn’t written by AI.
How did this happen?
Recently I wrote about how I’m starting over fresh on Medium.
So I wrote an article about one of my most recent experiences as a homeowner — spending a lot of money on an air conditioner — and submitted it to a publication. I followed their application process and waited.
And then, the email showed up.
Knowing Medium’s policy on AI, and wanting to write my own stories anyway, I was a bit shocked to receive this email about a story I wrote myself without a single bit of help or input from AI.
I did a quick search on how to figure out if AI wrote something, and found a helpful article right here on Medium.
I visited the website — GPTZero — and copied my article to see if I write like an AI.
Fortunately, I do not.
I know I need to improve my writing, and I try to get better with each article.
But why did the publication flag my article as being written by or heavily influenced by AI? I sent a response to the publication, hoping they could help me understand what happened.
At the time of publishing this article, I’m still waiting for a response. I will provide an update below if I find anything out.
Update: The publication sent this response to my questions.
I don’t understand the discrepancy between the AI checkers the publication used and GPTZero. I suppose it’s their word against mine — and there’s nothing I can really do about it except state my case here.
I’m not going to mention the publication because I know they are just trying to be careful — and I hope to write for them eventually. Many publications on Medium care about doing things the right way, and they don’t want to publish something that was carelessly slapped together by an AI.
So I get it, and I don’t blame them for being careful.
But it makes me wonder: how many writers has this already happened to? There’s no way I’m the first.
I think it’s great that Medium is cracking down on AI-generated articles. But we need a better way to determine which stories are by AI and which stories are by humans.
Otherwise what happened to me will happen to other human writers.
By the way, I’m pretty sure this is irony.
The publication’s rejection email was more likely written by AI than my article was.
As AI still puts out meh content, people forget AI checkers are in fact AI and thus their output is meh as well.
The problem with AI, is, well, AI!
It's being used everywhere, but is it really being used well, or wisely? Any AI is only as good as the training it has received, and, like with people, some AI's are better than others at some tasks.
I enjoyed your article. It shines a light on a wider set of issues with AI, without being too serious about it.
As I get older, my tendency with things like this is just rant a bit to myself, then just forget about it and move on.
I've worked in "tech" since 1985. So a long time. I'm well aware of what computers and software are good at, and what they're not. In almost all cases, their limitations are due to the programmers, not the Tech.
Keep writing.
Andy
(Please note I am a rather large physical entity, not an AI or a computer generated image like Jabba the Hutt, despite any apparent visual similarities).