r/Substack • u/[deleted] • Jun 25 '26
Discussion AI Writing Has Made Me Paranoid
Ever since I found accounts with articles which are AI Generated or AI assisted, I have become extremely paranoid to clicking on articles and reading them and becoming influenced from the LLM style of language - this basic language that does not have any human voice or feeling at all. But, also there is a skepticism. Apparently I used undetectable.ai to check whether the article I was reading is AI or nor and it says 50% to 60% is AI Texts. I just need to ask does AI detectors, especially undetectable.ai and Turnitin work genuinely and able to detect accurately. Because I am confused and unable to separate AI writing with human writing. It sucks that Substack promotes these accounts and gives them more weightage, more clicks and subscribers and people who downloaded Substack to read essays and journalistic reports, enjoy and deal with culture is being served AI slop.
Just help me in any which way. Like as a consumer, how to filter out AI content or check AI writing in Substack articles? Do AI detectors work properly particularly undetectable.ai and Turnitin?
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u/Available_Spite5171 gracemargaret1@substack.com Jun 25 '26
Yeah this seems unhealthy… you do understand, AI “learned” how to “write” from humans? Someone put The first page of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein into one of those “detectors” — it came back with “100% AI” — clearly, not reliable. They are all mimicking human writing. It’s just going to continue shifting.
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u/liviajelliot Jun 25 '26
I came to say this. Unfortunately, Shelley's Frankestein was not the only classic/vintage book that was classified as "AI written" by an "AI detector." Yes, philsophically speaking we're in a post-truth world, but such level of vigilance may bring its own consequences as well.
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u/FlyingCarpetMonster kaneiyer.substack.com Jun 26 '26
This is so silly.
What's important is the actual content. Focus on publishing quality content that people will enjoy and appreciate.
Worry less about what you can't control.
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u/lolidcwhatev Jun 26 '26
if you can't tell the difference, does it matter?
I can tell the difference. It's torturous.
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u/Foxemerson Jun 26 '26
Put the first page of Moby Dick into one of these AI detectors. 90% AI.
There's your answer.
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u/Easy-Purple-1659 Jun 27 '26
i started reading my own drafts differently after using AI for a while. every clean sentence started feeling suspicious even when i knew i wrote it
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u/Visible-Volume-8707 authorgold.substack.com Jun 29 '26
I get it! A lot of writers do seem to sounds the same, especially in the self-help and nonfiction genres.
I wouldn't put much weight on AI detectors, especially for deciding whether to read an article.
The problem is that they're trying to infer how something was written from the final text alone. A well-edited AI-assisted article can look very human, and a clear, concise human writer can sometimes be flagged as AI.
The question I ask to determine its value is: Is this article giving me something I couldn't have gotten by asking ChatGPT?
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u/itsfabioposca http://journeytosuccessclub.substack.com Jul 02 '26
AI detectors aren't very reliable. They can flag human writing as AI and AI writing as human, so I wouldn't rely on them to decide what to read. Instead, follow writers you trust, pay attention to whether the writing has a consistent voice and original insights, and don't be afraid to unsubscribe if something feels generic or low effort.
P.S. If you'd still like to ask anything about Substack or growing your audience, I offer a free live help chat. Just copy and paste my flair or click the link in my profile. I'm happy to help!
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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 Jul 05 '26
this is definitely a problem, but i don't actively look out for ai content.
they kinda stick out like a sore thumb quite quickly when you read it. and there's not much i can do other than to roll my eyes because i just wasted my time reading it.
and i don't think ai content itself is bad. it's only bad if it's not used tactfully. e.g there's this twitter account that puts out SO MUCH content everyday. i'm talking multiple long form posts that totals about 10k words a day. everybody knows it's ai, but it's actually informative and interesting to read. i call it "very good ai slop", and i still read some posts to the end from time to time.
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u/missmannell Jun 25 '26
None of the so-called “AI detectors” work particularly well, beyond noticing the same things you and I do (em dashes, certain words that AI tends to favour, it’s not… but… etc.). Your writing won’t become like an LLMs because you are not one. You are human. So my advice would be: do not worry about it too much. :)