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AI detectors vs cryptographic proof

An AI detectorAI detector: A model that guesses whether content was made by AI and returns a probability, not proof. reads finished text and guesses whether a model wrote it. A signed mark is added when the content is made, and a check says who signed it and whether it changed.

Start freeCheck a file
Provenance reads back a signed record: signed by Town Daily, made with AI: no, unchanged since signing. Detection runs unsigned text through an AI detector and returns a guess, such as 72 percent likely AI.
A detector returns a likelihood. A signed mark returns yes or no. The dial value is an example.

Side by side

An AI detector and a signed mark, side by side
AI detectorSigned mark
Question it answersDoes this look AI-made?Who signed this, and did it change?
When it worksAfter the fact, on any textOn content signed when it was made
ResultA likelihood scoreValid, changed or no mark
Human work flagged as AIHappens. Each one is a false positiveFalse positive: A wrong yes, such as human work flagged as AI-made.No guess from writing style. Unsigned work shows as no mark; a signed AI declaration is reported as declared, and can be wrong
Names who signed itNoYes, the signer
As AI models improveHarder to tell apartNo change. It checks a signature, not style

When to use each

A detector
To screen work other people send you, when nothing was signed.
A signed mark
To sign your own work, or to label what your AI makes.
Both
A detector can flag a piece. A signed record settles what was signed and by whom.

What the numbers say

OpenAI's AI text classifier, 2023: share of texts flagged as AI-written
  • AI-written text caught26%
  • Human text wrongly flagged9%

Source: OpenAI, January 31, 2023. Withdrawn July 20, 2023.

OpenAI, 2023
OpenAI's own detector caught 26% of AI-written text and wrongly flagged 9% of human text. OpenAI withdrew it on July 20, 2023 for low accuracy. Source
Stanford, 2023
Seven detectors flagged, on average, 61% of essays by non-native English writers as AI-written. Essays by US eighth graders were judged well. Source

Who uses a signed mark instead

A file holds a signed label in four layers: who signed it, what they declared including AI use, a fingerprint of the content, and a signature that seals them together.
The label sits inside the file. It names the signer, carries what they declared, fingerprints the content, and is sealed by a signature.
Publishers
Sign each article, so copies carry who wrote it.
Companies using AI
Label AI output in a form machines can read, as Article 50Article 50: The EU AI Act rule that AI-made content be marked in a form software can read, and deepfakes disclosed. of the EU AI ActEU AI Act: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, which includes rules for marking AI-made content. asks.
Platforms
Show a checked label instead of accusing a user on a guess.

Keep reading

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Sign your work or your AI output free, and let anyone check it.

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