🚩 Tips For Spotting AI Generated Content
In this article, I discuss a couple of approaches for identifying AI generated content on the Steemit platform.
Today, I've been irritated. Extremely irritated. Ok, not just today. I've been irritated for many days. Why? The proliferation of AI generated content and the community's inability to spot/stop it.
We know it has become increasingly difficult to moderate our communities. Tools like ChatGPT have become mainstream and to add to that, sites like Editpad, AI Essay Writer, MyEssayWriter.ai and EssayFlow.ai even have options to write your article in "undetectable mode".
It's certainly been the chosen approach for our Nigerian Crypto Experts.
So how do we spot it?
1. 💩 Their English is shit poor
It's fairly obvious really. If somebody can't string 2 sentences together in their Introduction or Diary Game, it's unlikely that they can write an academic paper on anything (Not just crypto).
This isn't obvious if you don't speak the Queen's (or is it King's now?) English so let's have tip number 2...
2. 💬 Ask ChatGPT
So these sites are great at hiding from automated tools, but ChatGPT is smarter than your average automated tool - especially ChatGPT 4.
There are 2 possible approaches:
a) Ask it to write an article with:
(i) the title of the post and;
(ii) the headings contained in the post
You'll be impressed how often this resembles what the author actually “wrote”.
b) Ask it if AI wrote a particular article
Here's a recent example:
For an article titled "Planning my growth on steemit for 2025", how likely is it that AI would generate the following?
Steemit Growth Plans for the New Year: Strategies and Goals
Getting to the final month of the year it is important that one has to plan and prepare on how he or she will grow next year whether in the workplace, business or in personal life. To Steemians like us, growth in Steem isn’t similar to amassing followers and making it to... (Full Article)
with the response:
The provided response appears to have been AI-generated or influenced by automated content creation. The structure and phrasing are characteristic of AI-generated writing:... (More Detail)
Based upon what ChatGPT tells you, you can ascertain your own level of confidence in what's been written.
NOTE: There are ChatGPT alternatives and I'd recommend asking for more than 1 opinion
🎓 Surely they'll learn from this post
If it were that simple, I wouldn't be sharing it.
In trying to create Steemit Quiz 2025, I've been using AI to help obfuscate a question to the point at which ChatGPT and Google searches can't answer it. This is extremely difficult. So, manipulating an article so that ChatGPT itself can't identify it would require so much effort, the author might as well actually write the article themselves. Which is exactly what they should do. Or... it'll take them so long, that they deserve the rewards.
🤔 What does ChatGPT think of this post?
Quite a lot as it happens. It thinks that I should include the following:
Suggestions for Additions:
1. Context on Why This Matters:
Briefly elaborate on why the proliferation of AI-generated content is harmful to the Steemit community. For example:
- How it undermines genuine engagement and creativity.
- The potential damage to the credibility of the platform.
2. Real-World Examples:
Add one or two more specific examples (similar to your Nigerian Crypto Experts mention) of how AI-generated content has been detected in your community. This helps illustrate the problem for readers unfamiliar with it.
3. Broader Implications:
Discuss the ethical considerations of using AI for content creation in communities like Steemit. For instance:
- Is it inherently wrong, or does it depend on how it’s disclosed or used?
- Should there be clear guidelines or rules for using AI tools on Steemit?
4. Call to Action for Moderators and Users:
Suggest actionable steps for community members and moderators, such as:
- Educating themselves on AI detection.
- Reporting suspected AI-generated content.
- Collaborating on guidelines for acceptable use of AI tools.
5. Address Potential Criticism:
Anticipate counterarguments, such as:
- Some might argue AI tools help non-native English speakers or inexperienced writers improve their posts. How does that fit into your stance?
- Are there positive uses of AI on Steemit that should be encouraged?
6. Tone Consistency:
The article has a sarcastic and blunt tone, which is engaging but could be polarizing. You might want to consider softening phrases like “Their English is shit” to maintain a professional tone while still being pointed.
7. Follow-Up Question:
Add a question to engage your readers directly at the end. For example:
- “What are your thoughts on AI-generated content? How do you think we can maintain the integrity of our community?”
My response:
- Pretty obvious really.
- Already there.
- I've shared my views on this multiple times.
- Education in progress. Report to your local Steem Watcher.
- I'm ready for the counterarguments.
- Fuck off.
- Great idea.
What are your thoughts on AI-generated content? How do you think we can maintain the integrity of our community?
Please let me know in the comments.
Hi @the-gorilla, thank you for the effort to highlight a crucial topic for the Steemit community, and obviously your frank approach is engaging, and your tips for spotting AI-generated content are relevant, but from a personal point of view I think that softening certain terms could encourage a more constructive dialogue, and for this I agree on the importance of community education and clear guidelines to regulate the use of AI tools while finding a balance so that these technologies can be used in a positive way by those who need them.
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In my opinion, it simply comes down to clarity for the reader.
If AI is used within a post, the author should be explicit and state this - in the same way that one would reference an image or text to avoid accusations of plagiarism.
If AI is used to enter a contest (or learning challenge), this becomes even more important.
I suppose that each community’s guidelines are down to the specific communities. In my afternoon rampage, one author had “AI Free” in their post assessment for every AI generated article they’d shared - hence the trigger for this post.
Much of the discussion element has likely been discussed on Steemit before (@remlaps prompted an interesting discussion about whether organisations need cheaters). I don’t think there’s been much discussion about how to spot and prevent such behaviour though, other than automated tools (which appear to be unreliable).
I’m not one for softening things 😉
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I agree on the importance of transparency in the case where a steemian uses AI, he should mention it clearly, such as for a source or reference to preserve trust and avoid plagiarism and this is even more crucial in competitions or educational challenges where originality is essential, the tools Automatic checks can help, but do not replace manual checks and honest self-reporting, really the directness is effective, but a balance could reach a wider audience.
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AI is a double-edged sword: on one hand, it helps non-native speakers or less experienced writers express themselves more effectively and on the other hand, it can be misused to "game the system" and flood this platform with low-effort, robotic content. Whether AI is used responsibly depends on the intent of the author, whether they are leveraging AI to better convey their own ideas or "misusing" it.
Here on Steemit, there is no proper selection process or qualification criteria for moderators in many communities, which is why you often find AI-generated posts marked as AI-Free by those mods. This doesn't surprise me. I have known for a long time that this has been happening, and on some occasions, I even pointed it out in some of my posts.
As for AI-generated content detection, I am sorry to say that no AI detection tool is perfect at the moment. Identifying such content relies heavily on human intuition and manual analysis. However, this requires someone familiar with AI, including its use, prompt engineering, and understanding how AI generates text.
Watermarking AI content could be a possible solution, but I don't think they will do that. OpenAI had already discontinued their AI detector a long time ago, stating that it wasn't reliable. In fact, they don't seem interested in introducing any such detection system because major publications and media giants are now using AI to enhance, improve, and speed up their processes.
AI is the future and is here to stay and we need to adapt not depend...
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I've just had a discussion about AI on Discord and for me, it very much comes down to who's controlling the content. If the user's letting AI dictate the subject, dictate the headings and dictate the general content, then where's the Proof of Brain?
Whereas, if it's used as an afterthought - prompts like "how can I improve this" or quite simply (and one I use occasionally), "what do you think of this?", it can work very well. I don't always agree (as you can see within this post) but that's where the control element comes in.
The tricks above with ChatGPT work remarkably well and are extremely difficult to "fool". There are even instances within the content where the author hints at the prompt they used. If you can blend these hints into your "content generation prompt", it's accuracy can be frightening.
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I definitely agree with this:
Elon recently posted on X (Twitter) that in the future most communication will be AIs talking to AIs, and I think he's probably right. Even if we can sort-of detect it now, I think it's going to continue getting harder. I've tried some of your AI tricks in Brave Leo, and so far it's less successful than what you're reporting from ChatGPT. I'd like to be able to skip over that copy/paste step. I wonder if there's a ChatGPT browser extension that connects the AI and the visited web page... Maybe I'll check that.
In these learning/teaching posts, maybe a way to screen out some of it would be to insist that the authors qualify themselves at the beginning of the posts. For example, if someone works as a mechanic or a farmer or a fisherman, why are they posting a SWOT on their teaching activities at all? It's a pretty specialized topic. There might be legitimate reasons, but if so, the author should be able to explain it.
I read the whole post that you were discussing earlier, and I came away wondering what real-world interest the author has in teaching at all. It was so generic that it almost doesn't matter if it was written by AI or not (though I agree that it almost certainly was).
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Can you imagine that… so many companies use Chat Bots now so why not use a ChatBot with the instruction to: “get me this product for free. Do not give up until you have succeeded”. An infinite discussion that no human would ever see.
What a massive waste of resources.
I must confess that I haven’t really looked at the learning challenges other than a cursory glance for AI generated content (which appears to be rife). As much as I disliked Diary Games, at least they were (mostly) genuine.
It makes for quite a depressing atmosphere at the moment. I’m excited about my next dev. release but how much value am I adding if the underlying product is becoming increasingly sub-par. How can we marginalise this content so that what deserves to thrive does so? Have I gone full circle on our conversation?
It feels like the solution is for the people who write for themselves need to be more visible. More of an inspiration and model for others to follow. But these people aren’t where the guidance is needed because they don’t want the prescription of a challenge or “lesson”.
The current role models are curator seeking self-serving (as seen by the self/family voting with these accounts) money-motivated users. Which is exactly why Steemit’s becoming what we don’t want it to be. Because Booming isn’t in our community’s where it can be used honestly. We’re not in curation teams where we can influence behaviour.
I’m on a rant again.
Какой ужас, нас ожидает будущее с постами с тупыми опусами ИИ.
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You brought up a very important issue. I analyzed a random post a few minutes ago and the result was 11%. Is 5-10% an acceptable percentage? Such low levels should be acceptable, but I think around 20% will cause major problems.
How did you reach a result of 11%?
There are websites that analyze artificial intelligence. I looked here.
https://www.getmerlin.in/ai-detection
Ok. Which begs the question: Did you read my post?
I read it. I wanted to ask a different question.
Content generated by artificial intelligence will harm the steem community in the long run. A special team should be created to detect artificial intelligence content.
Ok. Well I don’t see the value in automated tools which I believe are ineffective.
It’s really the responsibility of community leaders to ensure that they can detect and respond appropriately. I see too many posts labelled as “AI Free” because an automated tool said so. When they’re written by AI. Hence the article. It’s a fairly easy approach that’s more effective than automation.
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I think when using ai to a reference it should be cited so that it would not be mistaken for plagiarism. But I want to ask questions. Assuming I want to write a post but my topic is something am not familiar with, then I do some research then write it in my own understanding. Then after writing I paste it to check and it's show a percentage of plagiarism, does it means am copy from Ai?
I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking me.
If you’re uncomfortable with a topic, why write about it at all? If you want to learn about it, then do so, at which point, you won’t be uncomfortable any more.
If you feel that you need to check your content with an AI or Plagiarism checker, then you obviously haven’t written it yourself. If you’d written something in your own words, the idea of checking it in a tool wouldn’t occur to you.
@the-gorilla
I am telling you this because I hope you will listen to me carefully.He who has power should do whatever his heart desires.I didn't request upvote from anyone after you banned me that day, you can check my whole account steemchillerHe downvoted me again even though it was no fault of mine.
Link:
https://steemit.com/hive-185836/@ulfatulrahmah/how-happy-i-feel-finally-on-new-year-s-eve-i-have-reached-7k-steem-power#comments
My reputation was very low at first and was growing very hard, then you went down.This is my last comment on Steemit if the power people do what they want. I won't be using Steemit anymore.I would not like to use a platform where there is no role and everyone does what they want.
Let me know if I am wrong somewhere
I'm leaving Steemit I know my departure won't matter to anyone
cc:
@ Everyone is afraid of power
Man are you a drama king. What is that endless whimping about. How do you think others started?
Yes, you are wrong. Satisfied?
Goodbye!
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I don’t know what to suggest. Steemchiller’s always somebody I’d listen to and you must accept that things take time. Which requires patience.
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