The term artificial intelligence was first coined by an Ivy League professor in New Hampshire in 1956. Nearly 70 years later, we are finally starting to experience the full potential of AI.
One of the biggest ways that companies are using AI is to create marketing content. While it offers many benefits, there are some risks associated with using AI to generate content. Therefore, brands need to know whether AI content is being used on their websites. This is why it is a good idea to use an AI Detector.
The Growing Popularity of AI Content Comes at a Price
The demand for AI in the marketing profession has exploded over the last couple of years. One survey found that 69.1% of companies use AI in some capacity. AI is even more popular with business-to-business marketing teams. Another survey found that 85% of B2B marketers use AI in some capacity and 76% are satisfied with the results.
However, this doesn’t mean that AI can be used without caution. Companies that use it to generate content without doing any quality assurance can run into serious problems, such as:
- They may get in trouble for plagiarism. One major AI and plagiarism detection company found that 60% of AI generated content had some form of plagiarism.
- AI content often has strong biases that can deviate from your brand mission.
- AI content can harm your SEO rankings, since google may feel that you are using it to manipulate the search results.
- A lot of AI content has inaccurate information. Some researchers have found that it even makes up fictitious sources when asked to provide citations.
These risks cannot be overstated. Marketers need to be aware of them and find out if any content is made with AI before publishing it.
But Didn’t Google Recently Change its Stance on AI Content?
One of the biggest reasons marketers are wary of using AI content is that it can harm their search engine rankings. In 2022, John Mueller, the Senior Search Analyst at Google, stated that AI-generated content should be avoided, because it can be seen as an attempt to manipulate the search results. Therefore, Google would issue a penalty for websites using it.
Google changed its position on AI content earlier this year. They stated that AI content can actually be helpful if used responsibly, so it would no longer automatically penalize sites using it.
Many content creators are still leery of using AI, and for good reason. While Google says that it doesn’t strictly prohibit AI, many websites are still getting caught in its web. Here are some reasons that using AI-generated content may not be a good idea.
Writers Using AI to Create Content Often Don’t Care About Quality
Google has changed its stance on AI content, because it can be valuable to readers. However, AI content in general tends to be lower quality.
You need to put effort into creating quality content with AI. This involves doing original research, coming up with great prompts and making proper edits.
Sadly, many content creators don’t put much effort into the process when using AI. They simply type a single prompt into an AI-generative tool and copy the output.
AI Often Creates Content with Issues that Lead to Penalties
Even if AI content in general isn’t necessarily bad, AI-generative tools tend to create content with issues that can lead to penalties. This includes using plagiarized content, thin content, keyword stuffing, misinformation and sentence structures similar to those used by black hat websites.
It is possible to create quality content with AI if you take the time to proofread and edit it carefully. However, most people that use AI to create content neglect to take these steps to ensure it is high quality.
AI Content May Not Resonate with Certain Readers and Lead to a Panda Penalty
The Google Panda update came out in 2011, and it has been revamped many times since. This update was released to reward websites that offer a higher quality experience to users. One of the ways that Google makes this assessment is by seeing how much time people spend on the site.
Some readers don’t like AI-generated content very much. They will leave sites that publish it, which can lead to a Panda penalty.
How to Determine if Content is AI-Generated
There are a lot of things that you can do to tell if content is made with AI. Some of the most important tips to consider are listed below.
Start with an AI Detector
The first thing that you should do if you are worried that content may have been made with AI is to use an AI detection tool. Many people have been cautious about using these programs, because they weren’t very good when they first came out. However, they have since gotten a lot better.
AI detectors are very easy to use. You just need to copy and paste the document into them and click a button to analyze it.
It is important to keep in mind that AI detectors aren’t 100% perfect. You probably don’t want to outright flag a document just because it was flagged by one of these tools. You will want to take other steps before taking any drastic action such as deciding not to publish the article or punishing the writer. However, using an AI detection tool is a great place to start.
See If the Article Contains Any Anecdotes or Current Events
AI content is usually pretty thin. It doesn’t have any references to recent events, personal stories or other details that make it unique.
You should have been looking for these elements anyways, but they are even more important today if you want to stand out from all the AI-generated nonsense that is starting to pollute the Internet. People are going to want to see funny stories, well-researched statistics or other things that the content apart.
Diligently Fact-Check Content
Fact-checking is important regardless of whether you are concerned with publishing AI content or not. However, you are going to need to be even more careful about fact-checking content these days, since there is so much AI-generated content filled with factual errors.
You should insist on getting references for claims from your writers. This will make it easier to determine if the claims they are making in their content are accurate or not.
Look for Words that Are Overused by AI Text Generators
You may notice that a lot of AI text generators use certain words and phrase a lot more frequently than human writers. You will want to be on the lookout for content that contains many of these phrases and words. Some of the words that are constantly used in AI text include:
- Arguably
- Comprehensive
- Delve
- Embark
- Excels
- Intricate
- Landscape
Of course, it may be reasonable for some of these words to be heavily used in some contexts. For example, you will see the word “Excel” a lot in articles written about doing remote work, since Excel is the most common spreadsheet software. The word landmark will be used in articles on geography.
However, if there isn’t a valid reason to see these words, then you are going to be want to suspicious of content that contains them over and over again. That is a red flag that the content was likely written with AI.
Be Wary of Content that Doesn’t Show Much Critical Thinking
AI is not capable of thinking like a human. That is what the word “artificial” in “artificial intelligence” literally means.
AI content may be able to mimic human thoughts or writing styles, but it won’t usually stand up to scrutiny. You want to look for content that is written by someone that can think outside the box, draw parallels between concepts that are not obviously related and challenge conventional ways of thinking. This isn’t just helpful for seeing if the content is made with AI or not. It is great for making sure the content actually adds value.
Become Familiar with Your Writers’ Style
Most writers have a unique writing style. Even if they can alter their style based on the type of content they are writing (i.e. technical vs. conversational content) they will still have a fairly consistent standard for any given type of content.
You will want to get to know your writer’s style and see if it is relatively consistent. This can help you tell if they are sometimes using AI to cut corners.
Consider Asking to Have Content Written in Google Docs So You Can Track Changes
You will have an easier time seeing if content has been written if you can see changes. Google Docs has features that allows you to do this. You can see edits that the writer made and see how long it took to create the full document.
How to Choose a Good AI Detector
As we stated above, the best way to start is to use an AI detector tool. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to choose the right one if you don’t know what to look for.
Here are some things to consider when you are looking for an AI detector.
Look at the Accuracy Rate from Previous Tests and Reviews
You will want to see if the AI detector has been tested by different experts before using it. A good AI detector should have an accuracy rate of at least 90%.
Pay close attention to the reputation of the website reporting its accuracy. You will want to look at reviews from major websites, since they do a more thorough job than random bloggers. You should also pay attention to the process they took to test the AI detector. They should specify how many articles they tested to show that they had a decent sample size.
See if the AI Detector Has Transparency Reports
Even the best tools are going to make mistakes. You will want to look for AI detectors that advertise the fact that they are not 100% perfect. They are likely to be more concerned about quality than ones that claim they never make mistakes.
See if the Software Has Great Customer Support
Customer support is very important when you are using any SaaS application. AI detectors are no exception.
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