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Fool AI-Checkers. Make Your Writing Completely Incomprehensible

Why do AI checkers flag non-AI writing and how can we stop it

A writer’s piece has just been red flagged for AI content (Wiki Comms)

I don’t know whether you’ve bothered to do this, but I now run my finished pieces through an AI-checker to see if it flags them. It’s become a bit of a game and I’ve started doing it with every piece. I like games and point scoring. Not with other people but with myself.

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time alone, so I used to make up games. I used to play boules (or a version at least) where I would throw a jack ball and try to get a selection of other balls near it.

But it wasn’t just me playing. There were two of me. I would divide up my selection of balls (football, tennis balls, etc) and take it in turns to throw, remembering ‘whose’ ball was which.

Then I would see ‘who’ was closer to the jack ball, note down the winner on a piece of paper, and start another round. I would give my other self names and at the end pronounce ‘him’ or me the winner.

I used to do this for darts, mini golf, and throwing the frisbee. Anything that could be scored and added up. When my dad asked me what I was doing, I said, “Nothing much, just kicking about”. Then he would leave, shaking his head.

I still do this now. When I go running, I have imaginary runners whom I race against. They’ve even got names, and sometimes I even let them win.

It’s why I play the AI-checker game. I love the competition, so at the end of a piece, I bang it through three different AI-checkers. They give me a score that I average out and write down.

You think I’m joking, don’t you?

These are my last five pieces with AI scores (average of three).

Why I Only Read Print Books Now — 12%

Persian Powder — A History of Iranian Skiing — 23% AI

Is AI Influencing Your Writing? 35% AI

I Put My Wedding Photos on Wiki Commons 9% AI

Are Dating Apps Turning Us Into Clones? 19%

I don’t particularly trust AI-checkers, but as a game, it’s quite fun. Especially as the pieces that are about AI always come out on top. Weird that!

So why is this? Why do AI-checkers flag up human-written pieces? Using Grammarly and other writing aids is one reason. But the main reason is that your writing is ‘statistically predictable’.

Shit! Does this mean my writing is dull? Probably. Or does it simply mean that my pieces are the sort of pieces my English teachers at school would have wanted me to write? Concise and bland with no swearing.

I used to use a lot of swearing in my pieces. But over the years, I’ve toned it down. Not because I’m a puritan, but I think it’s a skill to write without every other fucking word containing the word fuck. That can get pretty boring, so I use words like “damn” and “blast” now. Sometimes “bloody”.

The problem is that avoiding swear words can cause your pieces to be flagged by AI checkers more often. This is because these LLMs are bloody puritanical bastards. Put a ranty swearing piece into AI, and it’ll tell you to tone it down a bit. It’ll even rewrite it.

Instead of, “I hate these cocksucking fucking politicians.”

It’ll suggest: “One may have impure thoughts about these guardians of democracy.”

AI loves pieces to be neutral with no mistakes and perfect grammar. My pieces were never perfect, but they are better than they were. As I wrote about in Typos Prove You’re Human — Leave Them In!, I’ve tried hard to be better at English over the years.

So I find it pretty galling that just when I perfect it, I’m told my writing is now AI! And just goes to show that hard work doesn’t get you anywhere these days. And is why I suggest leaving mistakes and errors in. It makes you come across as real.

Another trick to avoid AI checkers flagging you is using the word ‘I’. AI hates the word ‘I’. It means you have a soul and can talk about personal experiences. It’s why if you write about your Summer Holiday, like we all did at school, AI-checkers don’t have a chance.

Something like:

I got up. I had breakfast. I went outside. I saw my imaginary friend, Mikey. I went to the shed to get my balls. I threw the jack ball and started playing boules. I won!

AI checker result: 0%

(Thanks to Charles Amemiya for the idea)

[embed]Typos Prove You’re Human — Leave Them In! The best way to verify you’re not AImedium.com