Guides

Guides to AI detection and humanizing AI text

Clear answers to the questions people ask when a detector flags their writing: how AI detectors score text, how often they get it wrong, and how to rewrite an AI-assisted draft so it reads like you without changing what it says. Every guide opens with a short answer and links to the research behind it.

61%

of essays by non-native English writers were flagged as AI, on average, across seven detectors in a 2023 Stanford study.

Are AI detectors accurate? →
Under 80%

accuracy for every one of 14 detection tools in an independent academic test of human, AI and edited text.

How AI detectors work →
13.5%

or more of 2024 biomedical abstracts were likely edited with AI, judged by a sudden rise in words like delves and showcasing.

Signs of AI writing →
Bar chart: human sentence lengths vary from 4 to 31 words, while a draft flagged as AI stays between 18 and 23
Start here

Why is my writing flagged as AI?

The nine patterns that make human writing look machine-made, how to spot each one in your own text and what to do once it has happened.

5 min read

When your writing gets flagged

A detector score is not a verdict. Start here if a teacher, client or tool has questioned your work.

Version history timeline from outline to final draft

Falsely accused of using AI? What to do

The evidence that actually helps, a message you can adapt for your teacher or manager, and how an appeal usually works.

5 min read
Chart of published AI detector error rates

Are AI detectors accurate?

What independent studies found, who gets flagged unfairly and how much weight a single score deserves.

3 min read

How AI detection works

What detectors measure, what they miss and the patterns readers notice.

Next-word probability bars for a sample sentence

How do AI detectors work?

Perplexity, burstiness and trained classifiers explained without math, and why every result is a probability.

3 min read
AI-written paragraph with stock phrases highlighted

Signs of AI writing

Seven things a careful reader notices, the words that give AI text away and what no reader can tell by eye.

3 min read

Humanizing AI text

Rewrite AI-assisted drafts so they read like you, without changing what they say.

Four passes to humanize AI text

How to humanize AI text without losing meaning

By hand, with a prompt or with a tool: what each method takes and how to check the result.

3 min read
Before-and-after edits for rhythm, words, specifics and structure

How to avoid AI detection in your writing

Eight editing steps that change how a draft reads, and the shortcuts that make it worse.

4 min read
The four parts of a humanizing prompt

Prompts to humanize AI text

Ten copy-ready prompts, what each one fixes and where prompting stops working.

4 min read
Fact check comparing two humanized versions of one paragraph

Do AI humanizers work? Our tests

Before-and-after tests checked line by line for meaning, and how to run the same test on your own text.

3 min read