here are telltale signs that AI wrote text, such as em dashes, unnatural sounding sentences, monotonous tone and feigned excitement. But what if AI could help make text sound human?
That technology exists: College students are already using AI “humanizers,” according to an NBC News report. As the name implies, these humanizers review text for traces of AI use and then suggest changes to make it look more human written.
A quick search for “AI Humanizer” online results in endless options, including some from established companies such as Grammarly, which advertises itself as “a tool that rewrites AI-generated text—like content from Grammarly, ChatGPT, or Claude—to improve clarity, flow and readability.” Quillbot offers a similar AI Humanizer tool that can be added to Chrome for easier access. Both experiences are free, with many paid tools also available.
Though students turn to these AI humanizers to hide the fact that they were using AI in the first place, many also use it to protect themselves against wrongful accusations of AI use, NBC news reported.
As generative AI tools became more popular, educators were met with the challenge of determining what content was student or AI generated. As a result, they turned to AI plagiarism detectors, which are notorious for incorrectly identifying whether AI was used or not and have falsely accused many students of using AI. Studies have even found that these detectors are biased against non-native English writers.
Both educators and students in the report shared frustration with students having to prove that their work is authentic. Even if these students have never touched AI tools, they are being wrongly accused, even in some instances, for handing in high quality work.
Ultimately, the rise of AI humanizers are only a symptom to a larger problem: A cat and mouse chase in which, as AI systems become more advanced, so does paranoia about AI-generated content, discouraging students from bothering to produce good work at all.
A more permanent solution that goes beyond AI humanizers and detectors requires educators to shift assignments and testing to reflect the AI-first era we live in, such as moving more towards in-class assignments or testing for comprehension rather than execution.