academic editing

Fooling AI detection: Is it possible?

/ Michelle L Crowley / Leave a comment

I learned something very interesting recently while doing what (still) currently earns my keep: editing for academics, postgraduate students, and nonfiction writers.

In my vocation, AI has become a bone of contention since its invention and infiltration.

Besides the horrors of Turnitin, which checks for plagiarism, serious (and apparently less serious) writing is subjected to AI-detection checks because it is just so good at summarising vast swathes of literature if you guide it about what you intend to construct.

Some time back, I edited a paper that had an AI detection score of 93% for the first 15,000 characters in the original version of a client’s submission—there was barely anything there that had not been generated by AI. The client intended to submit to a peer-reviewed journal, so I adopted a more formal academic tone. The client was disappointed with the outcome—too stiff, she said—but doing so halved the AI-generation score.

More recently, I fed the Beast multiple times when I had the opportunity to put the ZeroGPT through its paces with a text just under 45,000 characters that needed to be “doctored” rather than just edited.

The original scores were 18.1%, 11.8%, and 10.8%. Not bad, all things considered, but the client had used Turnitin and received a score of 62%.

I executed a general edit and tested.

Oops! I reduced the first two sections’ scores by half, but the score had gone up substantially (8%!) in the last section with the inclusion of the necessary articles and making sure the nouns and verbs are congruent. Expressing text in perfect English is now, apparently, AI’s prerogative.

I worked with the highlighted text in the third section some more, considering the word choices, and returning them to the original, less precise, word choices.

And I tested again. Still 4% above the original score, but at least the final two paragraphs were now free from AI contamination. However, like working with Turnitin for plagiarism, passages that were not flagged initially emerged.

So, I worked on those passages and tested again, and again, and again.   

In the end, I reduced the overall score from 13,6% to 10,4%. On Turnitin, according to the client, the score dropped from 62% to 20%. AI detectors clearly do not work from the same page.

So, if you are looking to fool the AI detectors:

First, adopt a more formal, academic tone. That’s at least half the battle won.

Second, know that perfect English has become AI’s prerogative. So, let an error or two slip through.

Third, know that once AI has touched a written piece, it possesses it. It learns from repeated submissions, absorbing whatever is fed into it and feeding it back while claiming ownership. So, the more you test your efforts, the higher the score.

Fourth, the scores for the same passages on different AI detectors vary wildly, with Turnitin being the most terrifying.

And then know that, like the spike protein in the blood, once embedded, AI-generated text is impossible to get rid of. 

Four Ways to Reduce Your Academic Editing Bill

/ Michelle L Crowley / Leave a comment

Let’s first ask why editing is expensive. 

Editing involves reading a text with rapt attention, not just once, but several times for different issues.

Most important is reading for the client’s voice, unique turns of phrase, and ways of connecting ideas.

Doing that takes time, and when editors charge by the hour, it can be expensive; even if you manage to negotiate a fixed-price contract, the editor will cut the cloth according to the fee you are willing to pay.

Humanising Text

If you use AI to write for you, you are going to end up sounding bland, like a machine, and put your editor to sleep. And if you submit anything, for example, ask for a summary, remember that AI is learning from what you submit and is going to take possession of the text, and an AI detector will flag it.

The implications of using AI to generate your work are that it takes three times as long as a normal edit to edit AI out, and it will never be completely out. That ends up expensive.

Your editor has the skills to ensure linguistic integrity based on the voice heard, transforming what is shared into a more formal, grammatically correct tone because that is what editors do and what academic writing demands.

So, write in your own voice, however “bad” you think that sounds.

The Review Mode

Because I have applied, taught, and edited methods, I also read for methodological integrity and coherence. If you make claims, you need to substantiate them with arguments or evidence, or at the very least, a carefully considered opinion.

What that means is if I notice incongruities or suspect claims, I am going to comment and sometimes suggest a remedy or options around it. Sometimes I will help navigate a response to a supervisor’s comment.

Remember, you do not necessarily have to do everything the supervisor (or reviewing editor) says, only successfully defend what you did logically and coherently. If that is already in place, I do not have to stop, consider, and comment, and that saves you time and money.  

Citing Sources

Academic integrity demands citations or acknowledging the work that has helped you build your ideas, and the full details of the works cited must be listed in a footnote, endnote, bibliography, or references list. Different styles require the details in a different order with different punctuation conventions.

There are apps that can help: Zotero, Endnotes, etc; none are perfect, but they help if you use them from the outset.

So, you can save a lot of money just by approximating the style required by the institution, department, or journal to which you are submitting.

Remember too that AI generates fictitious sources. It takes a lot of time to verify and fact-check every source listed in a References list.

So, unless you are willing to pay, check the validity of every source you cite and its details when you set out writing your final draft.

Style Issues

A manuscript must also be presented in a particular way, based on the style a department, institution, or journal prefers.

I know what it is like writing a dissertation—the final product presented to an editor is a worked-through collection of texts, pieces gathered from the same and different computers with different styles and layouts.

Formatting is essential for cleaning up a document and makes it easier to read: The messier the formatting, the longer it takes to fix.

Some changes are easy to make, for example, using Advanced Search to remove extra spaces between words, or turning on Show/Hide and scrolling through the document several times to identify other embedded formatting glitches, like soft paragraph breaks.

So, when it comes to formatting, you can save yourself money just by getting the basics right: spacing, font size, and headings. Better still, find or create a template. Those aren’t perfect, but they can sure help reduce the editing bill.   

SO…

If you want to reduce your editing bill:

  • Write in your own voice, however “bad” you think that sounds.
  • Approximate the style required by the institution, department, or journal to which you are submitting.
  • Check for the validity of every source you have cited.
  • Get the formatting basics right: spacing, font size, and headings.

In the end, the more of these tasks you do, the less you will have to pay your editor to do it for you.