# How AI detectors actually decide a text is "AI-written"

**URL:** <https://forum.gnoppix.org/t/how-ai-detectors-actually-decide-a-text-is-ai-written/7618>\
**Category:** AI General\
**Created:** [October 13, 2026, 5:14am UTC](https://forum.gnoppix.org/t/how-ai-detectors-actually-decide-a-text-is-ai-written/7618 "2026-10-13T05:14:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dipakbhosale](https://forum.gnoppix.org/user_avatar/forum.gnoppix.org/dipakbhosale/32/235_2.png) [@dipakbhosale](https://forum.gnoppix.org/u/dipakbhosale)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2026, 5:14am UTC](https://forum.gnoppix.org/t/how-ai-detectors-actually-decide-a-text-is-ai-written/7618/1 "2026-10-13T05:14:11Z")

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most people think ai detectors just check for “ai-sounding” words, but its mostly statistical. they score how predictable each word choice is (perplexity) and how uniform the sentence lengths/structure are (burstiness). human writing is messier and less predictable, ai text tends to be smoother and more uniform.

that’s also why these tools get false positives on non-native speakers and very formal writing, both read as “smoother” than typical human text. and why light paraphrasing can fool a detector without actually making the writing better.

curious what people here think, anyone actually tested how reliable these are on their own writing?