From generating SEO copy for your business to creating full-length scripts, AI is a robust tool taking the digital world by storm. One report estimated AI market size is expected to grow 28.46% per year, resulting in a market volume of $826 billion by 2030.
The line between human-created and AI-generated content has become harder to delineate. Luckily, AI content detectors can help you identify when someone has done the work of writing, fact-checking, and personalizing content—or left it all up to artificial intelligence. Learn more about how AI content detectors work, some of the top AI content detectors on the market, and how you can use these tools to improve your business.
What are AI content detectors?
AI content detectors are algorithms that scan text to identify linguistic patterns associated with AI LLMs (large language models) that create AI-generated text. Businesses can use AI content detectors to scan social media posts, product descriptions, application materials for new hires, and other consumer-facing materials. Though they cannot guarantee complete accuracy, AI detector tools can ensure your content is human-generated and original to maintain trust with your audience.
How do AI content detectors work?
Similar to how you recognize the writing style of your favorite author or journalist, AI detectors look for key signifiers when scanning documents and providing an AI score. From a technical perspective, AI detection tools use a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to correctly identify text written by AI, looking specifically at signifiers known as burstiness and perplexity.
Here’s how it all comes together:
NLP and ML
NLP is the technology used to understand the depth, subtleties, and context of a given piece of writing, whereas ML takes structural patterns used in AI-generated writing to compare a given text with the most common practices of AI technology. For instance, if a text repeatedly shows a pattern of using common words, simple sentences, and few nuanced phrases, AI detection tools will flag the text as most likely being AI-generated.
Burstiness and perplexity
Within the technologies of NLP and ML, there are two common labels for signifiers of AI-generated text: ”burstiness” and “perplexity.” Burstiness is the variation of sentence length and structure. Human writing tends to use complex sentence structures and varied length, thus being more “bursty.” By contrast, AI language models generate shorter sentences, lending themselves to a more standard tone like that seen in the text generated by leading AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
Perplexity is the degree to which a model can predict the probability, order, and combination of words used within a text. LLMs aggregate human-written content and identify the most commonly used words and phrases, which ultimately leads to a predictable use of these words and phrases in AI text. Current AI practices are somewhat standard regardless of the source (i.e., OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, etc.), allowing AI detectors to identify AI-written text fairly consistently.
Uses for AI content detectors
- Content quality and authenticity
- Reviews and user-generated content
- Job application quality assurance
- Competitive advantage
Regardless of what industry your business works within, there are many ways in which you could benefit from using AI detection tools.
Here are a few common use cases:
Content quality and authenticity
Most businesses use various forms of written text to communicate with their target audience. Whether it be a blog post, ad copy, or caption for social media, AI detection can be used as a plagiarism checker to ensure whether you’re unknowingly using copied or AI-generated content.
Unintentional plagiarism can hurt credibility, so detection tools are especially helpful for checking outsourced deliverables from contract writers, content in multiple languages, and academic integrity for journals or research papers.
Reviews and user-generated content
Many industries rely heavily on user-generated content and reviews to provide consumers with an accurate gauge of product quality. Using AI content detection can be a great way to filter out fake user testimonials and maintain good brand equity, a term describing consumers’ perceptions of the quality of a company, product, or service.
Job application quality assurance
HR and hiring managers can use AI detectors to scan application materials and identify any AI-generated content. This can speed up the hiring process and help you find candidates with original cover letters, résumés, or portfolios.
Competitive advantage
Companies may gain an advantage by using only human-generated text and honing an original tone and feel—especially if competitors rely heavily on AI-generated text. This can be of utmost importance if your product or service relies on human expertise or complicated ethical considerations, two areas in which AI generators lack.
How accurate are AI content detectors?
The technology behind AI content detectors is quite robust, so content detection tools can catch a majority of AI-generated text.
However, complete accuracy is a tall order for AI checkers due to myriad factors that can lead to false positives or negatives of AI-written content. A false positive is when an AI detector flags human-written content as AI-generated. A false negative is the reverse, wherein an AI content checker does not recognize generated text. False positives/negatives can occur when the detectors scan short or ambiguous text, as there is very little context in short-form writing.
Another limitation of AI content checkers lies in detecting content that has been edited or paraphrased. AI-generated writing altered after the fact has been shown to increase the likelihood of fooling AI detector tools, especially when the alterations add deeper context, more complex sentence structure, and varied syntax.
Avoid overreliance on detection applications and read any consumer-facing text for yourself to make sure the tone and style sound human and align with your brand voice.
Top AI content detectors
An abundance of paid and free AI detectors are available to the general public, yet some can boast a user-friendly interface and premium tools. Below are some of the best AIdetectors in use currently:
Originality.ai
Originality.ai is a paid detector tool that can identify both AI-generated and plagiarized content—even when it has been slightly paraphrased or edited. Pricing follows a credit system, so you can purchase 3,000 credits for $30 or spend $14.45 per month for 2,000 credits that renew each month (one credit scans 100 words).
Originality.ai may be a great option if you need to detect AI-written content frequently within your business. It is important to note Originality.ai only works for content written in English.
GPTZero
Specializing in identifying content generated by Gemini, GPT-3/4, and Llama models (Meta AI), GPTZero uses a seven-layer AI detection model to deep scan for AI text. The user-friendly interface uses a simple text box that allows you to copy and paste text or upload your own files. The Essential version—priced at $15 a month—can perform simple scans, highlighting individual sentences that are likely AI and rating them on a sliding scale from human to mixed to AI.
The premium and professional versions are $24 and $35 per month, respectively. The premium plans include an advanced AI Deep Scan that provides color-coded highlights for individual words that are likely AI-written, and a writing analysis section that breaks down sentence structure, perplexity, and burstiness. Additional features include a plagiarism checker, Google Chrome extension (compatible with Google Docs and Microsoft Word), and an AI translator for multiple languages.
Copyleaks
Copyleaks is known for proficiency at detecting AI-written content and identifying plagiarized material. Coming in at $16.99 per month for full access to the AI detector and plagiarism functionality, Copyleaks is an easy-to-use tool that can ensure all of your business’s content is human-written and free of copied material. Additional features include code scanning (Codeleaks), high-grade security, and a writing assistant.
Winston AI
Boasting a free AI content detector trial for the first seven days, Winston AI is one of the more feature-heavy detection tools. From traditional plagiarism checking and AI detection to scanning images and handwritten content, Winston AI can offer a one-stop shop for most of your scanning needs. After your free trial expires, you can upgrade to the Essentials version for $18 a month, which will give you the ability to scan 80,000 words a month, generate shareable PDF reports, and catch a majority of content generated by Claude, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT.
Hive
Hive Moderation offers free demos of its user-friendly interface with no commitment or sign-up necessary. The AI text detector requires written content of at least 700 characters, with a recommended length of 1,400 characters for best results. Additional features include a Google Chrome extension, audio detection, and image/video detection.
AI content detectors FAQ
What is the difference between AI content detectors and plagiarism checkers?
AI content detectors are algorithms built around large language models that identify whether or not a text is written by an AI generator. A plagiarism checker, on the other hand, scans all available sources on the Internet to determine if a text has been copied from another source.
Is there a way to detect AI-generated content?
You can detect AI content using an AI detection tool, yet these tools are not 100% accurate. Using multiple detection tools can be a good idea to cross-reference scanning methods and ensure that you are not using AI content for your business.
What does an AI detector tool do?
AI content detectors reverse engineer AI-generator technology to identify patterns, sentence structure, and word choice associated with AI text. Detection tools then rank the given text on a sliding scale from human to mixed to AI.
