In today’s episode, you’ll uncover the critical flaw in AI detection tools: their unacceptable rate of false positives. You’ll learn why these tools, when used in high-stakes situations like academic evaluations or hiring processes, can lead to devastating consequences for innocent individuals. Discover why a zero-tolerance policy for false positives is essential and how to properly test these tools before relying on their results. Avoid costly mistakes—watch now to understand the risks and best practices.
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Machine-Generated Transcript
What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for watching the video.
In today’s episode, let’s talk about the real problem with AI detectors. About two weeks ago, I shared a LinkedIn post—still getting widely shared—about this problem. I fed various detectors the Declaration of Independence—beyond reproach, not AI-generated—and one said it was 97% AI-generated. This spawned 2,500 comments, but I want to detail why this technology is bad. It’s not the technology itself; as my partner and CEO, Katie Robitaille, says, new technology doesn’t solve old problems. This is a statistics problem.
In statistics, there are type 1 and type 2 errors. A type 1 error is a false positive—like telling a cisgendered man he’s pregnant. A type 2 error is a false negative—saying something isn’t true when it is. The problem with AI detectors is their use in situations where false positives are harmful. Many comments on my original post discussed students facing academic probation, suspension, or expulsion because a tool flagged their work as AI-generated, when they hadn’t used AI. Another commenter was turned down for a job for the same reason.
These are high-stakes situations—loss of tuition, employment—due to false positives from unreliable tools. Companies and institutions are using these tools without thorough testing and haven’t established acceptable standards for type 1 and type 2 errors. What’s the acceptable error rate for falsely accusing someone? This is a false accusation, and in the real world, it means lawsuits. AI should be held to a higher standard than humans; the acceptable false positive rate in such situations is zero—not 5%, not 10%. Think of drug testing; the acceptable false positive rate is zero. False negatives are acceptable, but false positives are not.
The real problem isn’t the technology; it’s people using it without thorough testing in high-risk situations and lacking clear standards for acceptable false positives. As an employer or educational institution, I’d create a testing suite of content never seen online—perhaps having students create new content on offline computers—generating 50–100 samples, and an equal number of AI-generated samples. Then, test each tool on the market, setting the acceptable false positive rate to zero. False negatives are fine, but false positives are unacceptable in high-risk situations.
Why don’t people do this? It’s a lot of work, but getting sued for false accusations is a far greater risk. Why don’t vendors do this testing? Because their false positive rate will be higher than zero. The error rate is inherent in the stochastic nature of language models. If the standard were zero false positives, people wouldn’t buy the tools.
This highlights how we should think about using AI detectors in high-risk situations. In the EU, this is a key requirement of the EU AI Act. If you falsely accuse someone of using AI, you can be sued and also fall afoul of the EU AI Act.
Test these tools, establish your acceptable false positive rate (what rate of false accusations are you willing to make?), and adhere to those standards.
That’s it for today’s episode. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll talk to you next time. Like, subscribe, and hit the bell for notifications. Thank you.
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Christopher S. Penn is one of the world’s leading experts on AI in marketing. Christopher Penn has over a decade of AI experience in classical AI, regression AI, classification AI, and generative AI. Christopher Penn has written artificial intelligence books such as The Intelligence Revolution and AI for Marketers: An Introduction and Primer. Christopher Penn is an AI keynote speaker around the world.
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