Kimberly Gasuras doesnt use AI.
I dont need it, she said.
Ive been a news reporter for 24 years.
Illustration: Vicky Leta
How do you think I did all that work?
That logic wasnt enough to save her job.
As a local journalist in Bucyrus, Ohio, Gasuras relies on side hustles to pay the bills.
But halfway through 2023, the income plummeted as some clients switched to ChatGPT for their writing needs.
It was already a difficult time.
Then the email came.
I only got one warning, Gasuras said.
I got this message saying theyd flagged my work as AI using a tool called Originality.
Gasuras wrote back to defend her innocence, but she never got a response.
A few months later, WritersAccess kicked her off the platform anyway.
They said my account was suspended due to excessive use of AI.
I couldnt believe it, Gasuras said.
WritersAccess did not respond to a request for comment.
It makes for a tidy business in a landscape full of AI boogeymen.
These companies advertise peace of mind, a way to take back control through proof and accountability.
Some advertise accuracy rates as high as 99.98%.
Theres no question that AI detectors make frequent mistakes, and innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.
Countlessstudents have been accused of AI plagiarism, but a quieter epidemic is happening in the professional world.
Somewriting gigs are drying up thanks to chatbots.
We have a lot of concerns around the reliability of the training process these AI detectors use.
Were talking about peoples livelihoods and their reputations.
It even suggests ways to rewrite sentences using, you guessed it, artificial intelligence.
However, Jenny Maxwell, Grammarlys head of education, disputed those claims.
There is no evidence linking AI detection flags and the use of Grammarly suggestions.
Suggestions like our clarity rewrites are not powered by generative AI, Maxwell said.
Grammarly does offer generative AI tools that write content from scratch, though these suggestions dont appear automatically.
These features should and would trigger AI detection, she said.
Detectors look for more telling factors as well, such as burstiness.
According to Weber-Wulff, research shows that AI detectors are inaccurate, unreliable, and easy to fool.
People want to believe that there can be some magic software that solves their problems, she said.
But computer software cannot solve social problems.
We have to find other solutions.
Theres a significant demand for these services, whether or not theyre effective.
You dont even know if the person youre talking to on social media is real, Cui said.
I was in shock.
It felt ridiculous that theyd accuse me after working together for three years, long before ChatGPT was available.
He tried to push back.
Marks relationship with the writing platform fell apart.
He said losing the job cost him 90% of his income.
But according to Gillham, the problem is about more than helping writers or providing accountability.
Google is aggressively going after AI spam, he said.
Thats a problem for web-based businesses, and increasingly the No.
1 selling point for AI detectors.
A Google spokesperson said this completely misinterprets the companys policies.
Its inaccurate to say Google penalizes websites simply because they may use some AI-generated content, the spokesperson said.
No one claims AI detectors are perfect, including the companies that make them.
But Originality and other AI detectors send mixed messages about how their tools should be used.
However, on one of the companysblog posts, Originality says AI detection is essential in the classroom.
Then there are questions about how the results are presented.
The results were 70% Original and 30% AI.
However, its actually a confidence score; Originality is 70% sure a human wrote the text.
(I wrote the whole thing myself, but youll just have to take my word for it.)
Then theres the way the company describes its algorithm.
If youve got your calculator handy, youll notice that adds up to more than 100%.
Gillham said thats because these numbers come from two different tests.
It seems that isnt enough, though.
Gizmodo spoke to multiple writers who said they had to argue with clients who misunderstood the Originality tool.
Representatives for GPTZero and Originality AI said their companies are committed to openness and transparency.
On the other hand, all of the copywriters Gizmodo spoke to said the AI detectors are the problem.
AI is the future.
Theres nothing we can do to stop it, but in my opinion thats not the issue.
I can see lots of ways AI can be useful, Mark said.
This article has been updated to include comment from Grammarlys Jenny Maxwell.
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