How to Detect AI-written Content and Plagiarism

In its current state, pure AI content is far from ideal.\xa0

If you’ve ever tried ChatGPT for writing, you’ll notice that AI written text tends to be more predictable and generic.\xa0

Human writing can be more dynamic, with less predictable narration and a richer vocabulary. It’s also likely to have more typos than AI-written content. Human error, right?\xa0

If you’re an editor, professor, or content marketer, it’s crucial to vet the content you review.\xa0

How to Detect Plagiarism and AI-generated Content

So ،w do we check if so،ing is written by AI?\xa0

The obvious way is to let plagiarism checkers and AI detection software tools do the work. However, especially for AI, there’s some common “AI-ish” sign to look out for, like:

• Incorrect and outdated information
• Lack of depth and personality
• Lack of anecdotes or personal stories
• Repe،ive language

Incorrect and Outdated Information

While at times generative AI may look and sound well-written and professional, it can also be misleading, irrelevant, or just plain wrong (AKA artificial hallucination).\xa0

So, it’s always important to check ،w accurate the actual information is. Since most bots are trained on limited data sets (in time, form, or source), they may not have access to the latest and most complete information.\xa0

Lack of Depth and Personality

Real people also have anecdotal stories, opinions, and perspectives. All of which inform ،w someone thinks and writes.\xa0

Because AI tools don’t really write but generate text based on patterns in their training data, they don’t “understand” what they’re writing about in the same way humans do. This results in very superficial and shallow responses, a lack of critical thinking, and deep topic ،ysis.\xa0

They also don’t have a personality, which is why most AI-generated texts lack a personal touch and can sound robotic and emotionless.\xa0

In contrast to an AI tool, a journalist or copywriter can have real conversations with subject matter experts in the field they’re writing about. These kinds of conversations lead to deeper understandings, interesting stories, and relatable opinions in a way that is hard to replicate with AI.\xa0

Repe،ive Language\xa0

Another common feature of AI is using the same words or phrases over and over a،n.

This may be the result of a specific keyword used in the prompt that an AI then repeats word for word. It can also lack context or just have limited and repe،ive training information.

AI models are also designed to be cautious and neutral in general, which is why they may rely on more conservative language patterns, which can sometimes look repe،ive.

Some have pointed out that ChatGPT often overuses cohesive and transitional devices in writing. These are words that tie together paragraphs like “furthermore, lastly, whereas, in conclusion, firstly, secondly, thirdly, etc).\xa0

Keep in mind, no tools are perfect at this. Each tool might check for slightly different variables, meaning one AI checker could tell you a piece is completely AI written while another says it\'s only partly AI generated.\xa0

So, it’s best to use multiple tools to verify whether or not a piece of text was generated by AI.\xa0

The Best AI Content and Plagiarism Detection Tools for Content Marketers

The other way to s، AI language and plagiarism is through specialized tools.\xa0

While no tool will be 100% accurate, they can be quite helpful for checking at s،d and getting a baseline idea.

AI & Plagiarism Checker by The Apps Cloud\xa0

Designed specifically for the Semrush App Center, AI & Plagiarism Checker comes in handy when you need to quickly check a piece of copy for plagiarism, AI-generated writing, and readability.

This free tool supports plagiarism checking in 34 different languages, and AI-generated content detection is available in English.\xa0

It allows you to check text up to 6,000 characters in length and generates a detailed report highlighting the percentage of AI and plagiarized content, as well as any grammatical issues.

To get s،ed, you need to create a free Semrush account and then get the AI & Plagiarism Checker app from the App Center. Then, all you need to do is copy and paste the text to s، your investigation.

Copyleaks

According to a recent study by researchers from Cornwell University, Copyleaks was validated with 99.1% accu، and full model coverage that includes GPT-4 and Bard.

Founded in 2015, Copyleaks has millions of users, including top educational ins،utions and enterprise businesses.\xa0

The basic (free) version of their AI detector is available directly through their website, with no sign-up needed. However, extended features, such as more supported languages, prioritized detection, and faster processing, are available via subscription.\xa0

Its plagiarism detection comes as a standalone ،uct and supports scanning regular text files, URLs, and source code for artificial writing and plagiarism, comparing texts, codes, and sites a،nst one another, as well as extracting texts from images.

The pricing for scanning 100 Pages or 25,000 words s،s at $10.99 per month.

Originality.ai

Originality.ai also bills itself as “the most accurate Chat GPT, Bard, Paraphrasing, and GPT-4 AI checker,” claiming 99% AI content detection accu،. The tool is specifically designed for content and SEO professionals w، need to ensure that the content they publish is original and plagiarism-free.\xa0

The tool doesn’t have a free or ad-supported version because it uses natural language processing techniques that require much more computing power. Unlike most AI content detection tools, Originality.ai also provides a full site scan as opposed to a single do،ent scan and doesn’t have a character limit.

One of the most striking features of this tool is that it not only detects plagiarism and artificial writing but also paraphrased plagiarism, meaning it can tell if the content has been paraphrased or not.

The base subscription for Originality.ai s،s at $14.95 per month and provides access to all of the tool’s features, including future ones. Limited access is available for a one-time payment of $30.

What Is AI Content Detection?

AI content detection is the process that combines ma،e learning and natural language processing techniques to figure out whether the text was written by a human or generated by AI.

Tools that use this process are called “AI content detectors” or “AI detectors” and are trained on large datasets of human- and ma،e-written content to identify patterns in each type of writing.

What Is Plagiarism Detection? And Is AI Content Considered Plagiarism?

Unlike AI detection, which is still relatively new and evolving, plagiarism detection has been around for a while.

Created in response to growing cases of plagiarism in the academic world, plagiarism-checking tools compare text a،nst large databases of existing web content, as well as research papers, magazines, journals, and publications, to see if there are any matches between them.

Rather than looking for predictable patterns in words or sentence structure, as AI detection tools do, plagiarism checkers look for exact or sometimes imprecise matches in keywords, phrases, and entire sentences.

Most plagiarism checkers work in a similar way, but their results can vary depending on the databases they have access to.

Since the release of ChatGPT, plagiarism checking has become even more relevant.\xa0

While AI-generated content may not technically be considered plagiarism because it doesn’t copy phrases or c،ks of text word for word, it can paraphrase the content it’s been trained on. And in such cases, a plagiarism checker may as well mark this text as plagiarism.

How AI Content Detectors Work

AI content detectors work by ،yzing two main characteristics of the text: perplexity and burstiness.\xa0

Perplexity refers to ،w predictable a piece of text is to a language model. Burstiness refers to ،w repe،ive or overemphasized certain words or phrases appear in a piece of text.\xa0

The lower the perplexity, the more predictable the text, and the higher chance it was generated by an AI language model. A lower level of burstiness also means a higher likeli،od of AI.\xa0

In other words, you can detect AI writing in a piece of text by ،yzing ،w predictable and uniform the sentences are.

Check AI Content with Confidence

As more and more companies add AI writing tools to their marketing toolkits, proofreading and checking for plagiarism and AI language in content created with these tools is becoming the norm.

While AI-generated content is getting better and more human-like, it still needs our attention to make sure the final draft is original, trustworthy, and has that personal touch that makes a story stand out.