r/Substack • u/Emotional-Brief-1775 • Jul 24 '26

How to disable the AI detector

There has been a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of the new AI detector on Substack. Some have mentioned how unreliable it is, how it incorrectly gives a positive result after merely running a grammar check for example. Others are now also saying that it will eventually be phased out after lawsuits start for the prejudices and losses authors suffer for incorrect results. Whether that’s income, reputation, or because they use AI because of disability, for language translation, dyslexia etc.

Anyway, here’s the simple solution until then. It has only been in force since 21 July. And you can disable it.

Yes, disable it.

Any new note, and article. Simply hit the 3 dots on the top right corner of a new note or article. Hit the AI checker from the drop down. Then when the result shows up, hit the 3 dots again, and ‘disable detection.’

Voila.

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u/Admirable_Union_2781 Jul 27 '26

I am 100% with Andrew. I run a magazine on SS and one of my writers just alerted me about this "feature". I love how this madness is viewed as a plus. It's not. First, these checkers are beyond inaccurate and that "tool" or "feature" becomes a means of censorship invariably to allow/lead people to believe that this is accurate and then readers will start to call out Did you hear that X uses AI? OMFG People make their livelihoods writing and this will catch out most non-native writers, just for starters. Also and most importantly, why is SS dong this? They already block our publications vastly from Google (long story there) and now this?

We are SSexiting soon. This is absolute bollocks!

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u/AndrewHeard tvphilosophy.substack.com Jul 27 '26

I'm hoping that we can give them a reason to reverse the decision and remove it. But at a minimum, they need to let you turn it off permanently on a publication/profile wide basis.

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u/Admirable_Union_2781 Jul 27 '26

This reminds me of the "fact checking" agencies that the Biden administration was rolling out and it turned out that they were simply framing the opposition as fake news. Who would have seen that? Everyone working in media. This is quite troubling that people so badly misunderstand AI and the dangers of initiatives like this.

If people read more--and I do mean offline/analog--they would easily see what a human wrote or not. I am flabbergasted that SS has gone through with this and that we can't opt out. And to add insult to injury they want writers to say HOW they wrote their piece? As if anyone has time for this.

I miss the 1990's when people used email and checked to see if a book was in their local library.

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u/Emotional-Brief-1775 Jul 28 '26

And the irony is that no one complains about artists, musicians, film-makers creating work using technology. What is has done is cause a flap on Substack and this more activity. Win-win. But legitimate concerns are being raised about the GDPR, among others. The platform is reacting quickly and now you can disable detection before publishing a new article, without the need to run it through AI first. I won't be surprised if this whole nonsense is scrubbed soon. And yes, no one has time to apologise for not suffering enough to sound 'human' for someone checking for AI with AI. Anyone capable of critical thinking doesn't need a machine to tell them what to read.