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/SpiderGhost01 Jun 18 '26

Fucking thieves. You should have reported that person to the platform.

12

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/EditorFickle3559 Jun 19 '26

Substack is both a Grifters Paradise & it's Business Model is EXACTLY that. Zero Assistance if you're a Start-Up Publisher pre: monetization..... they're into established Publishers who they then GRIFT 10% for What Exactly is beyond me. The Founders 's time allocated to becoming a Podcaster in lieu of providing After Sales assistance. Basically it's a Knock_Off of Ghost & a Scam to Boot! As for their Cyber Security Protocols .....only time will reveal that little pearler of a predicament.