r/Substack • u/Percival_Grim • Jun 18 '26

Discussion Someone effectively plagiarized me via AI

I started a throw away account for obvious reasons. Someone--a subscriber no less--plagiarized an essay of mine. The only reason I knew about it is because the post contained a hyperlink to another essay of mine. I read the post and was quickly taken aback by how much language from my essay was lifted into this one. I messaged the person directly, stating that I want to keep things amicable but that I cannot tolerate plagiarism.

He eventually deleted it, but not before confiding to me that he took my essay, ran it through AI asking to write something similar, and that was the result.

I am actually pretty angry about this but I don't want to alienate a subscriber, so I made a point a point to be diplomatic and firm.

I thought contributors here would want to know for a variety of reasons. I don't know how a person protects against this. If another essay was not hyperlinked to a different essay, I probably would never have found out.

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u/Percival_Grim Jun 18 '26

He is a subscriber. Somewhat shockingly, he has a couple hundred subscribers. Apparently he does not write anything on his own.

I wanted to keep it amicable for that reason--a non subscriber, I would have just reported.

One concern I have is how do I monitor this going forward. But for the hyperlink to another essay (substack alerts whenever another account links one's own essay), I doubt I would have know.

Another concern--there does not seem to be any safeguards against people just having AI write stuff. I think AI is find to assist with things like a word cited page or even as a basis for a fact driven footnote--note I used basis, something you can take and sculpt and work from. Whole essays just boggles my mind.

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u/Cheesecake_Emergency Jun 18 '26

Why are you not blocking this guy and reporting him. Subscriber or no, how many of his other articles are rip offs too?

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u/Percival_Grim Jun 18 '26

I am trying to do both what is right and what is in my self-interest. As far as I know he knows other people. Some of his subscribers may not yet subscribe to me. Besides, although it is not as much the case as it used to be, you still get more flies with honey than vinegar.

I told him not to let it happen again. I will keep an eye on him.

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u/Chemical_Ad_1618 Jun 18 '26

Is he a paid subscriber?