Ghostwriter Sally McGraw was hoping to land a job developing a book proposal for a prospective client.But after submitting a writing sample, she got an unexpected response: an email telling her that multiple artificial intelligence detection tools had flagged her work as machine-generated."I was floored because I had not used AI to generate the text," McGraw said.
"I'd written it all myself."Having spent more than 20 years as a professional nonfiction writer, McGraw said she was angry that her work had been dismissed as AI-written."You know where you see a cartoon character going red from their chin all the way up to the crown of their head? I felt my ears starting to burn," she said."I thought, what is going on?"McGraw said she assured the client she had written the proposal herself, but decided not to press the issue because she considered the job "minor."In an email to NPR, the client confirmed that she had screened McGraw's work for AI.
But she said the results were not the determining factor in choosing to hire a different writer, instead citing experience and fit.McGraw says she was paid for her writing samples, but believes the detector results cost her the opportunity to write the full book proposal.As editors struggle to keep up with a growing influx of AI-generated content, some are turning to detection tools to help sift through the mounting number of submissions.
But these tools aren't perfect: They've been known to falsely flag human-written work as AI, which can leave writers with little idea of what triggered the result and how to prove otherwise."Everyone knows that these screeners are not 100% accurate," said McGraw.Neil Clarke, publisher and editor of Clarkesworld, says a flood of AI submissions at the science-fiction magazine has put pressure on the editing staff.In 2021, the publication received roughly 1,100 submissions a month.By February 2023, after AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini started to become widely available, that number h...