AI technology has changed our lives significantly over the last couple of years. One of the professions that has been most affected has been digital writers.
A few major surveys from other countries have found that 36% of translators have admitted that they have lost jobs due to AI. The number of freelance writers that has been affected appears to be even higher.
People in Uganda are not immune from the problems that AI has created. They don’t just have to worry about losing their jobs due to AI. They also have to worry about being wrongly accused of using AI to do their work, which can negatively affect their careers.
This is becoming a greater concern as more businesses are using AI detection software to tell if people are using AI or not. Digital writers need to understand the impact of this technology to stay ahead of these concerns. Keep reading to learn more about this growing challenge.
What is AI Detection Software and How Does it Affect Digital Writers in Uganda?
AI detection software programs are applications that are designed to tell whether content is made with artificial intelligence or not. They are trained on many datasets of content that are written by both AI and humans. These programs use complex machine learning algorithms to distinguish the difference between AI-generated and human-written content. Here are some of the things that they look for:
- They look for burstiness. This means that they look for differences in sentence structures and other patterns throughout the document. AI content tends to have a lot of the same phrases and most of the sentences it creates are approximately the same length.
- They look for perplexity. These are unique ideas that are not usually found in AI content. AI is not able to think for itself, so content with unique ideas is less likely to be flagged by AI detectors.
- They look for common words and phrases that are used by AI content.
- They look to see how perfect the spelling and grammar is. Generative AI tools don’t usually make grammatical or spelling mistakes, so AI detectors are a lot more likely to flag perfectly written content as being made with AI.
AI detection software is expected to keep getting better as it is trained on more datasets of content. This is going to change things for freelance writers forever.
There are a couple ways that digital content writers in Uganda can be affected by AI detectors:
- Some writers use AI to create their content. They are less likely to get away with doing so in the future if their clients don’t approve of AI content, because they can easily run them through AI detection tools.
- They may get wrongly accused of using AI to create content if these tools trigger false positives.
The first group of writers is a lot less sympathetic. They may be trying to trick their clients or employers, which is dishonest. However, the second group of people might unfairly have their lives ruined.
How much of a concern is this? It is large enough to pay attention to, but a lot of the problems are overstated. Here are a couple of things that digital writers in Uganda have to think about.
The Risks of Being Unfairly Accused of Using AI Are Not Zero But they Are Overblown
A lot of people have complained that there is a very high chance that they can have their lives upended if a teacher or employer uses an AI detection tool and thinks that they were using AI content. This has indeed happened to some people, who were able to prove that they did not do so.
However, the risk of this happening is overstated. AI detection tools are a lot better than they were just a year ago. They don’t have nearly as many false positives. This is especially true if they are using a tool like aidetector.com, which is one of the more reliable tools.
Writers Should Be Prepared to Defend Against Accusations of Creating Fake Content with AI
It isn’t necessarily the end of the world if someone accuses you of using AI. You may have ways to prove that you were not doing so. One thing that many writers have done to protect against these accusations is to start creating their work in Google Documents. This helps them prove the history of any changes that they made, which can show how much time they spent working on the document.
It is a Good Idea to Run Content Through AI Detection Software Before Submitting It
Another important thing that people can do is scan their own work with AI detection software. This will help them know whether the client is likely to flag it or not. They can make necessary edits to avoid getting accused of using AI.
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