People are using AI but not disclosing it. How do you detect it ?

[Reignwyn]

Probably dialogue when it's just super bland and too on the nose all the time.

 

[Lock'n'Key]

Want to add that in stories set in established fictional worlds Ai will just Make Shit Up with no relation to canon yet beyond simply flavour.

Much of it reads like those overly alt-verse fanfictions where the author really needs to go write their own original work rather than cramming every single cool idea they've ever had into a single fanfic.

An example of this (without pointing fingers) would be something like Ai adding an entirely new system of magic to a Harry Potter fic in an overly convoluted, flowery description that eventually has no impact on the plot and is never seen or used again.
(But the pseudo magi-babble 'sounds' really cool.)

Eg: you have a HP character "enchant" an item and Ai suddenly needs the blood of three wolves, a potion of vitality and special made enchanting desk to do it when HP wizards quite literally just wave their wands.

 

[Roquemore]

For a very specific category of giveaway, Claude 4.6 likes to talk ambiguously but pretentiously about characters' emotions in an indirect way, but without any of the other elements that a good writer would use for complicated feelings, like physical symptoms or confused actions. It's hard to describe as a pattern, but it's pretty obvious once you've seen it a few times.

I suspect it was at some point reinforcement trained away from obvious "tell instead of show" writing about feelings, but nobody bothered to train it on actual good writing patterns to use instead, so it instead just gets ambiguous and goes in circles writing a fancy version of "Character X was having Big Feelings, and here is more and more text about how big those feelings are but also no actual details about them so that it seems deeper because you have to guess at it".

 

[Machiavellius]

I find it easy to tell because they all read the same. Because the writing is built around clever phrasing instead of concrete observation. It stacks abstract metaphors, every sentence feels like a punchline, and wraps thoughts up a little too neatly. They read like they are trying to sound insightful rather than just describing what's happening because AI patterns "interesting language" rather then a person's thoughts.

Other signs are all characters having the same "voice" and every conversation feels like they are they are in "serious conversation mode" at all times.

Another thing is Triadic Structures. You see all the time in AI writing. "it wasn't strength, it wasn't might, it was inevitability" or "he wasn't the same man, he was sharper, colder, someone else" AI uses them too frequently, makes them too symetrical and packs them with abstract or generic words.

As someone who uses AI to clean up my punctuation and help smooth out some of my ideas, it definitely helps a dabbler like me. Some people are using it as a story generator and that's when you can really see the slop. For example here's something I wrote that was cleaned up by AI:

Spoiler: My writing cleaned up by AI

"She bites her lip in concentration, her expression somewhere between curiosity and awe. "It's not healing in the usual sense — it's correction. His body is actively rewriting itself toward a perfect state, and it's doing it step by step. I'm watching it in real time. Strange… He doesn't have a Corona Pollentia. I don't know how but, he's not a parahuman. Whatever it is, it's natural. Or close to it.""

Vs.

Spoiler: What I wrote rewritten by AI

She bites her lip, her expression a delicate balance of curiosity, fascination, and quiet awe. "This isn't healing. Not truly. Not completely. It's something else. Something deeper."

Her gaze sharpens, intensity building as she watches. "His body isn't repairing itself, it's correcting itself. Refining. Perfecting. Every cell, every function, every flaw… rewritten. Adjusted. Aligned. Step by step, moment by moment, toward an ideal that shouldn't exist."

She exhales softly, almost reverently. "And I can see it. All of it. In real time."

A pause. A shift.

"Strange. There's no Corona Pollentia. No sign, no signal, no trace. He isn't a parahuman. He shouldn't be capable of this. He shouldn't even be possible."

Her voice drops, quieter now, edged with something uncertain. "Whatever this is, it isn't artificial. It isn't external. It's intrinsic. Fundamental. Something woven into him at the deepest level."

Another pause, slower this time.

"Natural… or something pretending to be."

See what I mean?

 

[sheogorath the 2nd]

I find it easy to tell because they all read the same. Because the writing is built around clever phrasing instead of concrete observation. It stacks abstract metaphors, every sentence feels like a punchline, and wraps thoughts up a little too neatly. They read like they are trying to sound insightful rather than just describing what's happening because AI patterns "interesting language" rather then a person's thoughts.

Other signs are all characters having the same "voice" and every conversation feels like they are they are in "serious conversation mode" at all times.

Another thing is Triadic Structures. You see all the time in AI writing. "it wasn't strength, it wasn't might, it was inevitability" or "he wasn't the same man, he was sharper, colder, someone else" AI uses them too frequently, makes them too symetrical and packs them with abstract or generic words.

As someone who uses AI to clean up my punctuation and help smooth out some of my ideas, it definitely helps a dabbler like me. Some people are using it as a story generator and that's when you can really see the slop. For example here's something I wrote that was cleaned up by AI:

Spoiler: My writing cleaned up by AI

"She bites her lip in concentration, her expression somewhere between curiosity and awe. "It's not healing in the usual sense — it's correction. His body is actively rewriting itself toward a perfect state, and it's doing it step by step. I'm watching it in real time. Strange… He doesn't have a Corona Pollentia. I don't know how but, he's not a parahuman. Whatever it is, it's natural. Or close to it.""

Vs.

Spoiler: What I wrote rewritten by AI

She bites her lip, her expression a delicate balance of curiosity, fascination, and quiet awe. "This isn't healing. Not truly. Not completely. It's something else. Something deeper."

Her gaze sharpens, intensity building as she watches. "His body isn't repairing itself, it's correcting itself. Refining. Perfecting. Every cell, every function, every flaw… rewritten. Adjusted. Aligned. Step by step, moment by moment, toward an ideal that shouldn't exist."

She exhales softly, almost reverently. "And I can see it. All of it. In real time."

A pause. A shift.

"Strange. There's no Corona Pollentia. No sign, no signal, no trace. He isn't a parahuman. He shouldn't be capable of this. He shouldn't even be possible."

Her voice drops, quieter now, edged with something uncertain. "Whatever this is, it isn't artificial. It isn't external. It's intrinsic. Fundamental. Something woven into him at the deepest level."

Another pause, slower this time.

"Natural… or something pretending to be."

See what I mean?

Click to shrink...

That's the thing, wether it has been generated by AI or 'cleaned up' by AI it's still so noticeable. Feels like dozen other ai fics across all platforms and people are sick of it. I myself wrote some AI content, like I wrote stuff and AI cleaned it up for me and after a lot of time where I felt like I couldn't be proud of the work... I refuse to say it's mine since it isn't I stopped. All that to day that generated or cleaned up doesn't make a difference, it's still the same kind of slop

 

[Irdiumstern]

The best heuristic I've found is that they're going to use generated AI images for their characters eventually. If they do, you can assume they'll have no qualms about the rest either.

 

[sheogorath the 2nd]

@Irdiumstern Not really a good comparison. Some can't draw and do not have the fonds needed to commission an artist. It's still AI sure but in the context of fanfics and writing it's largely different.

 

[Irdiumstern]

@Irdiumstern Not really a good comparison. Some can't draw and do not have the fonds needed to commission an artist. It's still AI sure but in the context of fanfics and writing it's largely different.

Click to shrink...

Writing doesn't need images. You can do what fanfic authors have done for decades now and look for fanart or celeb pics if you think it necessary.
It's a moral hazard either way, and someone justifying one way will flip flop on the other soon enough.

 

[sheogorath the 2nd]

Writing doesn't need images. You can do what fanfic authors have done for decades now and look for fanart or celeb pics if you think it necessary.
It's a moral hazard either way, and someone justifying one way will flip flop on the other soon enough.

Click to shrink...

Taking it kinda far you know? Like saying just because someone smokes they will definitely do drugs and commit crimes.

Just because one thing is true doesn't mean the other will too.