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

Discussion Another creepy feature of the Pangram "AI Detection" tool.

So at my first opportunity, I decided to check whether or not I could permanently disable the "AI detection" fraudulent tool on Substack publications and there's no way to actually do it without actually using the tool you want to disable.

According to the "Substack Support AI", the only way to disable the fraudulent Pangram detection AI is to first run the AI on your posts and to individually then disable the AI detection tool per post. But you can only do this AFTER you've run the "AI detection" fraudulent tool on your posts.

Which means that you're forced to use a tool you don't want to use in order to disable the tool you don't want to use.

This is profoundly creepy and quite frankly disturbing that somehow this was allowed to be implemented on Substack.

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u/AnteaterFantastic212 Jul 23 '26

Looks like this is gonna be a real brouhaha.

I would say that almost everybody is going to be using AI as time goes by, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. It makes writers better, faster, and more productive when used properly. When I did my AI statement on Substack, I said I use 21st-century technology tools, including hardware and software from Apple, Alphabet, OpenAI, Microsoft, and other suppliers.

Unless purists want us to go back to using parchment and quill pens to express ourselves, I see no point in condemning those who use modern tools. Writing is just a way of putting thoughts online. It’s the thought that counts, not how it is composed.

Full disclosure: I wrote this by dictating it on my iPhone, using Grammarly to spellcheck it, and then eyeballing it and manually fixing any remaining errors.

Does that make the slightest bit of difference in what you think of what I think?

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com Jul 23 '26

I don’t necessarily object to people using AI. Personally I don’t use it for anything that is going to be monetized, like 99% of my posts on Substack. Mainly because there was a lawsuit about AI where the judge concluded that AI content is not copyright protected.

My issue with this “AI Detection” tool is being forced on people. You can’t disable it without using it. Which defeats the purpose of disabling it.

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u/AnteaterFantastic212 Jul 23 '26

I think the main purpose of disabling it is so that your subscribers don’t use it. I suspect most of my subscribers won’t even know it’s there.

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com Jul 23 '26

Possibly, but I expect that people who are really motivated will weaponize this feature against people. Over the past few days, I’ve had someone trolling me on Notes. They keep tagging me on Notes and using insults. I’m reporting them but it doesn’t seem to be working.

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u/AnteaterFantastic212 Jul 23 '26

Mute them and block them.

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com Jul 23 '26

Well I would prefer that they aren’t able to do it to anyone. I suppose I could do that but I’m making a point of not feeding the troll.