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AI Content Detector False Positives – Accused Of Using Chat GPT Or Other AI?

Even our own AI detector is not perfect, and can produce false positives. These false positives can be very painful for anyone who creates original content — whether you’re a student wrongly accused of using ChatGPT by TurnItIn or GPTZero or a writer who received a false positive from Originality.ai.

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Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

Even our own AI detector is not perfect, and it can produce false positives. These false positives can be very painful for anyone who creates original content. Whether you are a student who has been wrongly accused of using ChatGPT by TurnItIn or GPTZero or a writer who has received a false positive with Originality.ai, this article is meant to help. 

Discover how AI detection works, the accuracy rates, what to do if you have been wrongly accused, and tips on how to avoid it in the future.

This article provides a brief overview of common questions about AI content detector false positives that may help if you have been accused of using AI. For a deeper discussion on each topic, view the recommended reading links within the sections.

What Do You Do if Falsely Accused — As a Student

If you truly created (without AI involvement) a piece of text and you are being accused of having created it with AI, here are steps you can take.

  1. Try different AI detector models. Our AI detector provides multiple models depending on your organizations policy
  2. Take your time — A knee-jerk reaction can often make the situation worse. Take the time you need to respond in an intelligent way.
  3. Collect relevant information
  4. Review your school’s academic integrity policy as it relates to the use of AI.
  5. Collect any working notes, revision history, etc., that demonstrate you put a lot of effort into the work.
  6. Ideally, you created the text in a Google Document, and you can use the Originality.ai Free Chrome extension to show the document’s entire creation process.
  7. Find relevant content showing the detection accuracy and false positive occurrences of tools.
  8. Check your previously submitted work to show your current work is similar to previously submitted work.
  9. Have empathy for your professor — they need to maintain the academic integrity of their institution in the face of a wave of students using AI to cheat, and the tools they have to fight it are imperfect.
  10. Send a polite response to your teacher — communicate the information you have compiled in a polite/respectful way that you are confident this is a case of a false positive.
  11. Escalate the issue to your institution’s administration if not resolved with your teacher.

What Do You Do if Falsely Accused — As a Writer

If you are a writer and you have been falsely accused of having AI create content, you can:

  1. Try different AI detector models. Our AI detector provides multiple models depending on your organizations policy
  2. Gather relevant information
  3. Review whether your writing agreement stated that AI was not permitted.
  4. Determine if a certain AI detection score and tool was agreed to (not a recommended way to manage the misuse of AI).
  5. Find previously submitted or similar work and run it through an AI detector.
  6. Provide research and guidance on how to handle AI detection scores (see AI Detection Accuracy and How to Use AI Detection Scores for more information).
  7. Share the relevant information with whoever is accusing you incorrectly of using AI (if you can share the information, it should help resolve issues with false positives).
  8. Demonstrate your other similar work was original.
  9. Show the creation process (using our free ChatGPT detector Chrome extension) of both your previous content and the content in question.
  10. Share research (AI detection accuracy & recommendations on how to use AI detection scores).

How to Avoid False Positives

Here are tips to help prevent and resolve false positives.

  1. A detection score of 60% Original and 40% AI is not a false positive. It correctly predicted with 60% confidence that your content was Original. The meaning of the score is not that 60% was Original and 40% was AI; it means it is 60% confident that the content is original.
  2. Create all articles in Google Docs (whenever possible) so that you can use our free Chrome Extension to help you PROVE your content is Original.
  3. Editing AI-written content is not a false positive; it is a true positive.
  4. Having AI edit your work is not a false positive; it is a true positive.
  5. When any amount of AI touches the content, it can cause the entire article to be flagged as AI.
  6. "Cyborg" writing, where a lot of AI tools are used to create an outline, suggest edits, and optimize the content, can increase the chance of a higher AI score.
  7. For this reason, we created a free content optimizer tool similar to SurferSEO or MarketMuse but 100% free that does not use AI to reduce the chance of a false positive occurring.
  8. Strange formatting can reduce the accuracy of the detector tools, causing an increase in false positives or false negatives.
  9. The shorter the text, the less accurate the detection score. We recommend at least 100 words be checked.

"False positives in AI detection are a BIG deal and will not go away with the use of generative." AI continues to climb. Our hope is that this article will help people understand the limitations of detection tools and share strategies on their appropriate use and how to prove your work's Originality.

What Is AI Content Detection?

An AI content detector is an artificial intelligence trained to tell the increasingly subtle difference between AI-generated and human-generated text.

Most Common Misunderstanding:

A detection score of 60% AI and 40% Original should be read as “there is a 60% chance that the content was AI-generated,” and NOT that 60% of the article is AI-generated and 40% is Original.

A score of 60% Original and 40% AI, if you know the content was 100% created by you, is not a false positive. It correctly identified the content as Original.

How Accurate Are AI Detectors?

AI Detectors are NOT 100% accurate and never will be. We have done extensive testing on Originality.ai’s accuracy rate, and it varies based on which Generative AI tool and large language model (LLM) is used to create the content. 

With our latest model, Lite 1.0.0, released in July 2024, the accuracy is 98% with a 1% false positive rate. Lite also permits light AI editing such as Grammarly’s spelling and grammar tools, which makes it an excellent choice for web publishers, marketers, and education professionals.

In October 2024, we released an updated Turbo model with 99%+ accuracy and an under 3% false positive rate. It's a fantastic choice if you have a 0 tolerancy policy for AI use.

For further information, see the complete AI Detection Accuracy Study. 

Then, review a meta-analysis of eight third-party studies that demonstrate Originality.ai’s exceptional AI detection.

Try our AI content checker here.

See our complete AI detector accuracy tests here.

Originality.ai Detection Accuracy on GPT-4

A quick overview showing Originality.ai’s accuracy on GPT-4 in comparison to other AI detection tools (note this was completed with a previous model).

We used a confusion matrix to test the accuracy of an AI detector against a set of AI-generated and human-written text.

  • True Positive – AI detector correctly identified content as AI.
  • False Negative – AI detector incorrectly identified AI content as Human.
  • False Positive – AI detector incorrectly identified human content as AI.
  • True Negative – AI detector correctly identified human content as human.

Below are the results of a study comparing the Accuracy and False Positives of Originality.ai vs Other AI Detectors

Are AI Detectors Easy to Trick?

Many existing AI detectors have a very easy way to trick them. Simply swapping out some words using a paraphrasing tool like Quillbot results in the ability to bypass detection — except for Originality.ai. Originality.ai can detect whether the content is AI, original, or paraphrased.

What Is and Is Not a False Positive?

A false positive is when an AI detector incorrectly identifies human-created content as being likely generated by an AI.

There is often some misunderstanding when it comes to false positives. For clarity, here is how Originality.ai aims to identify AI vs Original content under different content creation scenarios…

  • AI-Generated and Not Edited = AI-Generated Text
  • AI-Generated and Human Edited = AI-Generated Text
  • Human Written and Heavily AI Edited = AI-Generated Text
  • AI Outline*, Human Written, and Heavily AI Edited = AI-Generated Text
  • Human Written and Lightly Edited with AI = Results vary depending on level of editing done by AI
  • AI Research and Human Written = Original Human-Generated
  • Human Written and Human Edited = Original Human-Generated

*AI Outline is defined as using AI (an LLM) to create a content idea, do some research, and/or create an outline. The level at which AI is used during this process may vary and could potentially affect the likelihood the text is detected as AI or human

So if the content was outlined by an AI, then some of the content was written by a human and finally edited/expanded on by an AI; Originality.ai aims to identify this as AI-generated. This is not a false positive.

Similarly and more obviously, if ChatGPT creates a piece of content and then someone painstakingly edits it, but it still gets identified as AI-generated — this is not a false positive.

Should AI Editing Be Treated As AI or Original?

This is a tricky question and one that is still being debated as the use of AI continues to increase. The launch of our Lite 1.0.0 model permits light AI editing such as using popular tools like Grammarly’s spelling and grammar suggestions while editing. 

Overall, it’s best to maintain transparency when using AI, whether it’s for content outlines or editing.

How Should AI Detectors Be Used?

So, in a world where the rate of false positives isn’t (nor will ever be) 0%, how should AI detectors be used?

AI detection does not provide a proveable output for each piece of text — meaning no AI detector can say with proveable certainty that this is how we KNOW that your content was created with AI.

Therefore, it is best…

  1. Not to have a HARD rule that every piece of content MUST meet a certain threshold.
  2. Look at a series of articles from the same writer to identify writers that are likely using AI vs. those that are not.

Many Originality.ai customers using this strategy have been able to successfully identify writers who were using AI (even though they had been asked not to). Additionally, the Originality.ai customers using this approach were confident they could safely ignore a suspected false positive.

Read case studies of how customers have found success with Originality.ai.

However, for academic disciplinary action, AI detection scores alone are simply not enough.

If Detection Scores Aren’t Perfect — Why Bother With Detection Tools At All?

Some might question if it is responsible to have an AI detection tool if it is not perfect. At Originality.ai, we are confident in the detection rates of our tests and the additional steps we have taken to try and reduce/manage “False positives, including the free tools we offer.”

In a world where AI content is allowed to run wild unchecked, the impact on many of us would be significant. 

  • For Web Publishers — If you are concerned about staying on the right side of Google’s guidance with AI-generated content “Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies,” then using AI detectors can help protect your site.
  • If you are happy to publish AI-generated content, then you don’t need AI detectors or expensive writers.
  • For Content Marketing Agencies — If AI detectors are not used, it makes it challenging to communicate with clients who are asking for proof that the content is not AI-generated.
  • For Writers — If AI detectors are not used, then you could be competing against an army of ChatGPT users while struggling to prove your content’s worth.
  • For Academia (Students/Professors/Educational Institutions) — If AI is allowed to be used unchecked, it negatively impacts the degree’s value.

ChatGPT and other AI tools like HuggingChat are here — there is no going back. Everyone involved with writing needs to adapt to this new world. 

Multiple Examples of Students Being Falsely Accused of Using AI

The rise of ChatGPT and AI detectors has led to some unfortunate situations in academia.

Here are some examples:

  1. “My professor falsely accused me of using chatgpt to write my essay.” (Reddit post
  2. “My teacher has falsely accused me of using ChatGPT to use an assignment.” (Reddit post)

To be clear… at Originality.ai we don’t believe that an AI detection score alone is enough for disciplinary action. If a report indicates the potential use of AI, always review the content carefully and on a case-by-case basis.

Jonathan Gillham

Founder / CEO of Originality.ai I have been involved in the SEO and Content Marketing world for over a decade. My career started with a portfolio of content sites, recently I sold 2 content marketing agencies and I am the Co-Founder of MotionInvest.com, the leading place to buy and sell content websites. Through these experiences I understand what web publishers need when it comes to verifying content is original. I am not For or Against AI content, I think it has a place in everyones content strategy. However, I believe you as the publisher should be the one making the decision on when to use AI content. Our Originality checking tool has been built with serious web publishers in mind!

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

View All Press
Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

searchengineland.com

After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

rockcontent.com

Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

analyticsinsight.net

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

Software License Agreement

Copyright © 2023, Originality.ai

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  1. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Will My Data Be Shared?

This table below shows a heat map of features on other sites compared to ours as you can see we almost have greens across the board!

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