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The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

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Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#41

Post by swatcoder »

user3939382 wrote: post #18
swatcoder wrote: post #6

If your work looks so much like generated content that it’s flagging detectors, then it’s also probably the work doomed to be replaced by generated content soon enough (if not already). I don’t think current content generators will destroy many professions any time soon, but a lot of high-volume/low-value work is going to get consumed by them. This seems like an example of that work. Hopefully, this guy didn’t expect…

> pick up a new career It sounds so easy put like that. Hmm.. what do I have to do today? Get some mustard at the grocery store, pick up a new career, drop the dog off at the vet.

That something can be plainly put doesn’t imply that it’s easy.

We can have sympathy for the guy and want to support him while also recognizing the practicality that he’s been walking down a dead end road and needs to change course.

Even without LLM’s, fluff writing is ripe for outsourcing to second-language writers in cheaper markets and gets more efficient as those markets optimize for it. It can be a job for a while, but it’s just not a viable career in the long run and opportunities were already narrowing.

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#42

Post by vijayr02 »

Buttons840 wrote: post #9

I want to see an "AI detector" that just marks everything as being not AI generated. Then, whenever someone is accused of using an AI by some nameless website, they can present their own website that shows they didn't use AI. Professor: "The website said you used an AI." Student: "Well, here's a website claiming I didn't use an AI." Professor: "I don't know if I believe that website, let's look into the merits of how…

Surely this is trivial to refute? The professor just needs to have his own text that he generated using AI. When your website says it's not AI... then it's curtains I guess?

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#44

Post by waythenewsgoes »

Analemma_ wrote: post #30
lowbloodsugar wrote: post #10

Surely this is defamation? If I write a program to defame someone, is that still defamation?

Nope, not even close (at least in the United States). It varies a little by state, but in general defamation requires making either knowingly false statements, or having a malicious disregard for the truth, combined with intent to harm. An AI detection generator that gets a wrong answer meets neither of those requirements. You could potentially sue your employer or anyone else who took action on the false report, but…

Wouldn't having a demonstrably false accuracy rate, but simultaneously claiming to be 99% accurate in all circumstances constitute making knowingly false statements, and perhaps even malicious disregard for truth?

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#45

Post by cj »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #33

By this point I'd just be recording myself typing it if in case this ever came up. Like what other defense is there? "No I didn't" prove it "I can't"

Or type in Google Docs (or similar) that has an edit history, showing you didn't copy and paste massive blobs of text.

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#46

Post by simonw »

There's a key sentence hidden right at the end of this article:

> They were terrified of Google downranking any AI-generated content, and because of the apparently clear results from their AI checker, they couldn’t be convinced otherwise.

It sounds to me like the client might even have believed the evidence that he provided them showing that he didn't use AI to write the work...

... but they're in the SEO game, and they were paranoid about a (so far hypothetical? I don't think Google have announced this yet) AI detection mechanism that Google might use to downrank them.

At which point whether or not he used AI isn't actually the issue - if his writing style is indistinguishable from AI, then in the client's mind the risk from another hypothetical AI detector within Google means that they shouldn't use the work.

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#47

Post by CobrastanJorji »

Waterluvian wrote: post #15
whycome wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda like asking for the source code to the breathalyzer? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2007/08/im-not-drunk-off...

I would kill to watch some smartass show up to court with their own ridiculous-looking black box "breathalyzer" and draw the parallel to "why do you magically trust theirs and not ours?"

Be the change you want to see in the world. And when you do, please use a cardboard box with "Very Real Breathalyzer" written in Sharpie on the side and maybe a Nixie tube sticking out the top.

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#48

Post by lemmsjid »

ceejayoz wrote: post #17
hilux wrote: post #2

These AI detectors have all the validity of phrenology. You can enter some of your own writing (I did) to easily see for yourself. The text I entered had been online, and still is online, longer than AI writers have been around - but that doesn't seem to feed into their logic.

A good example: Put bits of the US Constitution in some AI detectors and they'll tell you it was AI generated. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/07/why-a...

Interesting--perhaps the AI detectors are right, and this will be how we discover that we are in fact in a simulated universe!

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#49

Post by eichin »

Waterluvian wrote: post #12
bell-cot wrote: post #8

Daydream: The names of companies firing people on the basis of "AI detector" results are reported to the IRS...which then uses an "AI detector" to discover whether they've been cheating on their taxes.

Interesting aside: I've been fascinated about how financial fraud can and has been detected by identifying numerical patterns that are fleetingly unlikely. Kind of like the, "fake data is actually pretty easy to detect" I've seen in academia.

I've always been amazed at how often simple tests like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law actually catch this kind of thing...

Re: The false positive rate of AI detectors and its effect on freelance writers

#50

Post by simonw »

ganzuul wrote: post #24

Are his articles included in a training set? Are they actually good content or should he try harder to behave like a human? This sounds like a defamation lawsuit. This seems like an issue NFTs could take some pressure of off.

If you're not joking, I would be fascinated to hear how you think NFTs might be relevant to this.
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