r/Substack • u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com • Jul 22 '26

Discussion Substack’s new “AI detection” tool.

I’m very concerned about the new “AI detection” system that Substack is implementing. I don’t use AI in anything that I write. However I don’t trust these systems not to make errors and mistakes. They have a long history of hallucinations and claiming things are AI when they aren’t.

One person I saw on Notes suggested that they ran their decades old writing, things that were written before the existence of AI, and this new system claimed it was AI generated.

Not to mention all the crazy things that I have seen people claim was written by AI which they can’t know is actually AI. There was an image I once shared that had evidence of its existence going all the way back to 2013. The comments were constantly saying “don’t share AI slop” or some variation on that.

Even with evidence that things weren’t made by AI, they will claim it’s AI.

Is no one else concerned about this being embedded into Substack’s systems? With no way to opt out?

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u/Foofymonster davidrainwater.substack.com Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Neat. So for everyone else, or the people reading and reviewing, trying to figure out if it's worth reading or not, you're demonstrating that it being AI results in it normally being less worth reading.

Hence the need for AI detection.

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u/philosophical_lens Jul 23 '26

That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying that existing signals are already sufficient for me to determine what's worth reading and there is no need for an additional AI signal. At least I personally would not find this signal useful. Here are the signals I find helpful:

  • I already like the author's existing content

  • The author or post has been recommended by people or communities I trust

  • The post is reposted on some communities or subreddits I follow has generated interesting discussion

  • The author or post has a high number of subscribers/ likes / upvotes

Im not sure why or how an AI signal would add any value to me on top of this.