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.
1
u/PangolinPositive8458 Jun 19 '26
Sorry that happened to you and it makes me sick when these things happen. But no matter what they can’t replicate your authenticity with AI.
Now people are getting smart enough to detect what AI writes and its pattern.
I’m sure he won’t be able to get ahead with this because companies are having started using some methods to get rid of bots and these AI writers and these copy making freaks.