How to prove that you’re a human writer (and not AI)

Every time a new piece of technology grabs the public imagination, someone somewhere busts out the “automobile” metaphor.

The new technology is the car, while the tech/people it might possibly replace are the “horse cart.” Just like the cart replaced horse-drawn buggies, new tech will replace old tech and/or the people who did its job before it existed.

With ChatGPT becoming universally accessible, there’s a lot of conversation around if and how AI engines will replace writers and artists by generating error-free content faster, based on a couple of prompts and a few minutes to spare.

In this article, I’ll discuss why the prevalence of AI-generated content will actually make human-written content much more valuable.

I’ll also introduce a tool that can prove that your writing is completely your own, not created by any AI tools or editors

But first, let’s talk about AI intervention…

The idea of artificial intelligence has been around for actual ages. Science fiction stalwarts like Philip K. Dick and Asimov have laid down some dark predictions about an AI-addled world. Then, you also have beloved AI borgs like Jarvis from Iron Man and Baymax from Big Hero 6.

At the level of our daily bread, butter, and browsing, it does seem like AI is generating everything from hip-hop lyrics to high art. By pulling work from every corner of the publicly accessible internet, and interpreting human-entered prompts, AI tools have created some eye-popping output.

However, the big difference between the horse cart and the human creator is this: the human writer has a human mind, which is never going out of fashion. The horse or its cart didn’t need empathy to move from point A to B, which is why a car was a better option. Good content and, more importantly, content that connects requires human intelligence and emotion, is something AI isn’t developing anytime soon (we hope).

Can AI replace human writers?

For a certain insignificant portion of human writers (or any creators), the answer is yes. Churning out 5-7 articles a week with ChatGPT is actually quite easy. You might also get half-decent quality out of it if you master the art of the prompt.

Writers who produce content by looking through the top 10 Google search results on a topic and rewriting all the points into a single article will be replaced because AI can do their jobs in less time, with less effort, and investment. Essentially, AI will help you get the content you previously received by hiring freelancers with no expertise in a topic.

However, it may not be able to produce writing that converts.

Writing that converts provides unique value to the reader. It shows the author’s personal investment, analysis, and effort. Most importantly, writing that converts shows the author’s personal expertise, and not just words and sentences scraped from other ranking articles.

Writing that converts is unique, original, and provocative. It goes deep into what a brand’s competitors are doing wrong, and why they’re doing it better. It gets a company to be taken seriously by its industry peers and convinces customers about the validity of your products over others. It’s what the term “thought leadership” actually means.

When it comes to this writing, AI cannot replace human writers.

A Quick Example

Take a guess, and you’ll see what I mean.

In an AI-driven world, being a (good) human writer gives you leverage… if you can prove your humanity

I’m a freelance writer, and more than one of my clients has already started using ChatGPT to generate content for their marketing requirements.

None of them, however, have told me that they don’t need my services. Instead, I now write analytical pieces — Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) content that actually convinces readers that the brand being spoken about is an industry authority. I write the content AI can’t.

In a world with more AI content, human writers become more important than ever before. If ChatGPT’s writing is a bland, forgettable but healthy soup, yours is the gourmet surprise people actually want to pay for.

But how do you prove that you are, indeed, a human writer?

With ChatGPT being accessible to everyone, many writers will use AI to generate content. Some will use it for research, while others will use it to do the actual writing.

If you want to distinguish yourself as a human writer valued for content only a human mind could write, you need some kind of unquestionable credentials to signify that “I am a human writer who does not use AI tools to write.”

Enter Authory.

How a portfolio-building tool can prove that you’re a human writer

Authory is a portfolio-building tool that helps you build a professional, future-ready portfolio with a couple of clicks. It finds and collects copies of all your bylined articles, published online. If you enter the URL of the site(s) where your work is published (with a byline), Authory will automatically import a copy of every existing piece, as well as any piece published (with the byline) in the future.

Sign up, type in a few URLs, and Authory creates and regularly updates a full repository of your work.

Once your Authory database is updated, Authory can use it to prove that you are a human writer.

Introducing Authory Certificates: The independent, credible proof of your skills

ALL content Authory imports is automatically saved forever, so you never lost any of your work, even if the original publication link dies/disappears/is swallowed into the digital void.

Essentially, Authory automatically runs an independent audit of your body of work (everything Authory has imported from the internet for you). It anonymously analyzes your pieces against millions of other articles by thousands of professional content writers across the globe.

After examining your writing from multiple parameters, Authory awards certificates to users found to have produced outstanding work. The engine checks your work against 5 distinct skill sets, and awards digital certificates to high performers.

One of these certificates is that of “Human Writer.”

Eric Hauch, Authory’s Founder, says:

The “Human Writer” Certificate is designed to provide credible evidence that your articles are, with a high degree of certainty, written by a human, and not by artificial intelligence.

FAQ: Human Writer Certificate

Authory conducts regular audits of all articles in its database (from every user), all crafted by professional content creators across the world. As of this article’s publication, Authory audits 4 million articles from 27,000 different publications.

For every customer, Authory creates a custom AI detection model. Think of it as a fingerprint of your writing style, as observed via analysis of all your work.

Now, the style of your new articles (imported after the release of ChatGPT) is compared to this fingerprint based on your existing work. If it’s consistent, then this is a strong indicator that you are not using AI for text generation. If you pass this test, you’ll receive your own certificate called the “Human Writer” certificate.

You can use this certificate to provide credible proof of the authenticity of your texts to prospective employers or clients.

Why use Authory instead of other AI detectors?

Of course, plenty of AI detectors exist, some claiming to offer 98% accuracy in detecting AI-generated content. Most of them have existed since before ChatGPT.

And herein lies the problem. ChatGPT devs themselves have admitted that they themselves can distinguish between AI and human-generated content in only 26% of cases.

Our classifier is not fully reliable.

— Open AI, creator of ChatGPT, on their detection

It is much harder to detect AI intervention for the new generation of machine learning engines. The writing will still be bland, but it’ll look like it was written by an uninterested human who did no real research or put any heart into their writing. You won’t be able to detect that it is a machine’s handiwork.

Bottom Line: It isn’t possible to develop (yet) a general AI detection model that works in all cases. Instead, we should be looking towards custom AI detection models, that focus on each individual writer’s past and current content.

Which is exactly what Authory does.

Authory’s custom AI detection model

Authory stores millions of articles from hundreds of customers. This data helps with creating a custom detection model for every single customer.

If a customer writes a new piece, and they want independent proof that it's not been written by AI, we don't only have to look at said piece in isolation. We can compare it to 200 other pieces by the same customer.

— Eric Hauch, Founder, Authory

Source: Why common AI detectors fail, and how Authory’s Human Writer Certificate is different

Authory uses each customer’s body of work to generate a unique “style fingerprint” for every single customer. This fingerprint considers thousands of different parameters so as to remain truly unique to that one user.

In some cases, to maintain integrity, Authory creates dozens or even hundreds of small fingerprints per customer, which are converted into a single overarching fingerprint.

Now, running AI checks for every separate piece written by a customer is not feasible, even for a machine. What counts is general proof that their text is authentic.

That's why, on a regular basis, Authory checks all new articles a customer has written, and compares them to their existing style fingerprint. If the fingerprints match with a reasonable degree of certainty, the customer is deemed eligible for the Human Writer certificate.

Authory judges your AI-free status based on your own work. Your pre-AI body of work is the standard on which you are evaluated. To Authory, you are your own benchmark.

Customer Testimonials for Authory’s “Human Writer” Certificate

A self-updating portfolio + automatic permanent content backup + proof you don’t use AI writing…

… and that’s what you get with Authory. But that’s not all. You also get:

• Ability to search through both your portfolio and your imported content database to find articles/audio/video based on keywords. Prospective employers or clients can use this to look for topics on your portfolio, and you can use it to find specific pieces within your Authory content bank.
• All imported content can be downloaded as high-res PDFs or exportable as HTML files — no lock-in period.
• No separate web hosting charges.
• Get a custom domain and further personalize your portfolio (no extra charge).
• Multiple, low-effort options for customization to make your portfolio visually appealing and easy to navigate.
• In-built analytics that provides real numbers on content performance (engagement, readership) across the web and popular social media sites every 30 days. You get to see how your readers/viewers are responding to your work.
• Allows creation of newsletters with a couple of clicks. After setup, Authory will automatically send your newly published content to subscribers.
• Widgets to display your personal portfolio on other sites, such as your personal website (if you have one).

In a world where AI content threatens to drown the search engines, Authory has your back. Your Human Writer Certificate proves that you offer more than lazy prompts. You offer human intelligence, emotion, and empathy — the essentials of writing that matters.

Get Started with Authory for FREE

Resources on Authory’s “Human Writing Certificate”:

• How Authory’s Human Writer Certificate works behind the scenes
• Why common AI detectors fail, and how Authory’s Human Writer Certificate is different
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Example Certificate
• What you can do with your certificate