Rephrasing sentences using different words while maintaining their original meaning can avoid AI content detection. By using an easy to understand writing style that reflects personal anecdotes and experiences, you can help evade AI detection in your content.
The humble beginnings of AI writing were once limited to simple tasks like auto-completing sentences and detecting incorrect grammar.
Today, due to advanced algorithmic improvements, AI writing has exploded on the content marketing scene, making it almost impossible not to use an AI writer yourself just to keep up.
The key to bypassing AI content detectors is ensuring that your AI-generated writing appears to have been written by a human rather than a computer, both for your reader and search engines.
In this article, we'll reveal all the techniques to make your AI content undetectable.
What you will learn
- How Google uses its machine learning algorithms to detect AI usage through writing patterns, language structures, and other advanced means.
- How to avoid AI detection in 9 effective ways
- The best available AI detectors to verify your AI usage before search engines do.
- The two genres you need to avoid when generating AI content.
What is AI detection?
AI detection is the practice of distinguishing between content generated by artificial intelligence software and human-written content. AI content detection typically involves analyzing writing patterns and the use of sentence structures and redundant words to look for characteristic signs of AI content generators.
The detection of AI in content has become increasingly essential for digital publishers in SEO and content marketing, as also in image and video generation.
Detecting AI in content is important because the use of AI-generated content can impact the perceived quality and authenticity of a piece of content. Human writing is often mistakenly perceived to have more value than AI-generated text.
This could be due to the fact that a human writer will spend more time and effort writing. A common fallacy is to equate more time with higher value.
Detecting the use of AI writers can also be useful in other scenarios, such as when you're outsourcing content writing or creating original academic research.
However, AI detection isn't necessary if you're creating articles to rank higher in search engines. Google has repeatedly announced that its focus is not on how content is created but on the value it delivers.
Here's Google's search liaison reiterating the same message.
What are AI detection tools?
AI detection tools are specialized software designed to check for AI-generated text in content. By using them, you can verify to a reasonable degree whether your content was written by a human or generated using an AI tool.
AI detectors use machine learning algorithms and natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze writing style and tone to audit content.
There are several AI detection tools available, ranging from simple online checkers to more sophisticated software integrated into your content workflow.
Here are 4 AI detection tools:
- Grammarly: While primarily known as a grammar and spell-check tool, Grammarly also offers features that can help detect AI-generated content. It assesses writing style, tone, and clarity to identify inconsistencies or anomalies that might suggest AI authorship.
- Copyscape: This tool is widely used for checking plagiarism but can also be effective in identifying AI-generated content. If AI-generated content closely mimics existing online material, Copyscape can detect these similarities.
- Turnitin: Often used in academic settings, Turnitin is adept at detecting plagiarism and can also be useful in identifying AI-generated content. It analyzes writing style and compares submissions against a vast database of academic papers, web pages, and other sources.
- Originality. AI: This tool hails itself as the most accurate AI content detector and is specifically designed to identify content that has been generated by advanced language models.
Can AI detectors identify AI-generated content?
AI content detectors are not always shown to be 100% accurate and can often lead to false positives. Since AI detection tools rely on writing patterns and language structures that are characteristic of AI-generated content, they can incorrectly flag human-written articles that mimic a similar style.
As our analysis shows, AI content detectors are not always shown to be 100% accurate.
These tools are not perfect and often mistakenly classify human-written content as AI-generated due to certain factors:
- Writing style: You may inadvertently use language patterns or phrases similar to those generated by AI models.
- Repetitive phrases or ideas: You might be using similar phrases multiple times in your writing. This is one of the most common reasons for false AI content detection.
- Unusual grammar or syntax: If your writing uses unconventional grammar or sentence structures, AI detection tools might misinterpret this as a sign of AI-generated content.
- Limited training data: AI detection tools rely on training data to learn how to distinguish between human and AI-generated content. If the training data of the AI detector is limited or biased, it can affect the tool's accuracy and lead to false readings.
- Evolving AI algorithms: As AI writing models become more advanced and capable of mimicking human-like language patterns, it's becoming more difficult for detection tools to differentiate between human and AI-generated content accurately.
AI detection tools are constantly having to improve and adapt to new developments in AI-generated content. However, false detections of human-written content as AI-generated may still occur due to the factors above.
At this moment, I don't recommend relying solely on AI content detectors to distinguish between human and AI-generated text.
However, AI tools like ChatGPT have pledged to watermark their generated text in a bid to authenticate AI-generated content versus human writers.
This could potentially make AI detectors more accurate in the future.
If you would like to generate content that avoids detection by search engines and AI content detectors, you can enable the anti-ai feature inside Surfer AI. So even though you're using AI to create content, your article will be recognized as human-written text.
9 ways to avoid AI content detection
With the widespread adoption of AI in the writing and research communities, it's easy to see how AI writing tools can improve scale and efficiency while decreasing effort and time.
Yes, AI content generators make things easier, but they can also free up time so you can focus on elevating your article with research, stats and examples instead of fighting writer's block.
We've discussed the use of AI content detectors and why you shouldn't rely too heavily on them to audit your content. However, there may be times when you want to bypass AI content detection.
Instead of just using one evasion technique, I'd suggest combining them for the most effective pass rate.
Follow these 9 tips to avoid AI content detection in your writing.
1. Rephrase sentence structure and format
The quickest way to elude AI content detection is by rewriting and shuffling your sentences.
This involves modifying the sequence of words and phrases within a sentence, which can throw off detection algorithms that depend on grammatical patterns and combinations of words.
AI content detectors can find recurring patterns in your sentence phrasing.
ChatGPT has a fondness for overusing terms that are now characteristic of its writing.
Here's an example.
Combining sentences can create a more complex sentence structure that becomes harder for AI to detect.
For instance, "The sun rose. It was a beautiful morning." can be combined to form "As the sun rose, it revealed a beautiful morning."
On the reverse side, breaking long sentences into shorter ones can make your content appear more human-like.
Let's take a look at an example of word substitution for ChatGPT content.
Here's a paragraph of ChatGPT's answer to "how to become a good marketer?"
Here's how we could rephrase it while maintaining its original meaning.
To become a good marketer for SaaS companies or marketing agencies, you need to do a few things. First, invest in ongoing learning to keep up with industry trends, SEO algorithms, and new marketing technologies. Second, you should really know your target audience, including their wants and needs.
Adopt decisions based on data by using analytics to track and improve campaigns. Encourage creativity and new ideas to make material that people want to read.
This is a simple way to keep the original meaning of your content while making sure AI systems do not detect AI-generated text.
2. Use synonyms and similar words
Substituting certain words with their equivalents can still convey the same message without being detected.
You will find that AI writing tools often use the most common or formal version of a word. So, for example, using an AI writer for this article would generate phrases such as, "avoid AI detection" or "evade AI detection."
These are fairly common words that are easy to understand.
However, I could substitute these for "sidestep AI content" or "circumvent AI content" and so on.
Let's use the same example we gave above.
Here's how we could rewrite it using synonyms.
Becoming a competent marketer for SaaS companies or marketing agencies requires a varied approach. Start by continuously learning and staying updated with industry trends, SEO algorithms, and emerging marketing technologies. Identify your target market's needs and preferences well.
Adopt data-driven decisions, using analytics to optimize marketing campaigns. Embrace creativity and innovation to create compelling content.
Of course, you want to keep your reader's sensibilities in mind when using different words. Online content is recommended to be written for a Flesch Reading Ease score of 60.
And you don't want to show off your vocabulary or confuse readers.
Overusing synonyms and antonyms can make your text appear awkward, which can be off-putting for your readers. So, use them judiciously to prevent your text from sounding unnatural or forced.
3. Avoid repetitive keywords and phrases
AI detection algorithms use machine learning and natural language to identify repetitive or formulaic language that may indicate AI authorship.
ChatGPT, for example, is notorious for using repetitive phrases. It's so bad that there's a whole thread dedicated to it on Reddit.
Eliminating repetitive phrases and words from your AI content can impact how AI-detecting tools see your content.
Identifying repetitive language can sometimes be difficult so I recommend reading out your content aloud. You'll be immediately able to tell when something doesn't read well.
To avoid this problem, eliminate as many repetitive keywords and phrases as possible and ensure you write in a more natural tone.
You can write in a natural tone by:
Writing like you speak
When editing AI-generated text, make sure it sounds like you’re having a conversation with your reader.
Use everyday language, including contractions such as “it’s” rather than “it is.” This will make your writing feel more approachable.
Avoid jargon and complex terms
Use plain language and familiar vocabulary to convey your message.
If you must use technical terms, ensure that you explain them clearly to readers who may not be familiar with the subject matter.
Use active voice
Writing in an active voice can make your sentences more direct and engaging.
You could also alter sentences that are in the passive voice to the active voice.
"I was in awe of the Eiffel Tower" can be rearranged to say, "The Eiffel Tower left me in awe."
By doing this, you have kept the main idea of your message and avoided likely detection algorithms that might be looking for certain patterns or word combinations.
Vary sentence length and structure
Mix short and long sentences to create a natural rhythm in your writing. This can make your content more enjoyable to read, help maintain the reader's interest, and avoid detection by AI checkers.
Ask questions
Posing questions throughout your content encourages readers to reflect on the topic and engage with your writing.
Your writing will appear more natural because asking questions is normal in everyday speech.
4. Share personal anecdotes and perspectives
Using real-life examples, stories, or analogies can help readers understand your message and make your content more engaging.
Sharing personal anecdotes and first-hand experiences in your content can add a special touch that AI often struggles to replicate.
For brands and content creators, building trust and credibility with their audience is crucial.
Readers prefer content that they can trust, written by real people with expertise or experience.
If your audience suspects that your content is AI-generated, it might impact their trust in your brand or the authority of your content.
This doesn't mean that you have to write all your content by yourself.
Think of it as before the Industrial Revolution, when most goods were hand-made. The introduction of machinery automated most of the work, but the best goods still required careful intervention by humans.
Using only AI-written content may sometimes lead to a more robotic feel to your final article.
The robotic-sounding nature of using only AI-generated content may bore your end user in addition to getting your work flagged by an AI checker.
Instead of choosing between human and AI content, it’s always a good idea to blend them both by adding some content that you wrote yourself to break up any possibility of AI content detection.
One of your main goals should be to provide helpful advice to your audience.
Adding human-written content to your project makes detecting computer-generated content harder for AI recognition tools.
5. Use descriptive prompts
It’s important to remember not just to ask an AI generator to create content and then call it a day.
To improve the quality of your AI content, you need to write more descriptive prompts that can bypass search engine detectors.
Writing a descriptive prompt is more likely to produce emotional and sentimental text with a conversational tone to it.
For example, you may end up with bland, low-quality content by using a prompt such as:
“Write a story about a forest.”
You’ll receive higher-quality text by being more descriptive.
“Describe a serene and peaceful forest, focusing on the sights, sounds, and smells that surround you as you walk through it in the early morning.”
To help you write better descriptive prompts, take the basic idea of your original prompt and then ask the AI to describe the situation using different senses.
For example, a prompt like this:
“Write a story about a day at the beach.”
It can be written descriptively by imagining what the situation would look, sound, and feel like:
“Craft a scene in which a character experiences the exhilaration and freedom of a coastal beach during a warm summer day, emphasizing the sensations of sand, surf, and sun on their skin.”
Alternatively, you can produce high-quality AI content by using the “in the style of” technique. You can do this by adding this simple phrase to your base prompt.
For example, instead of using a prompt like:
“Write an ad for AI software.”
You can add a style of tone or creative person you want to emulate to the prompt:
“Write an ad for AI software in the style of Quentin Tarantino.”
With a prompt like this, you’ll end up with content that should easily pass by any AI detection tool:
“In a world where every mundane task feels like a never-ending grind, one revolutionary piece of software dares to challenge the status quo. Prepare yourself for an adrenaline-pumping, mind-blowing, no-holds-barred adventure into the future of artificial intelligence.”
Just make sure to choose a tone or style that works for the product you’re selling, and let the AI do the rest.
You can use Surfer’s AI editing assistant, Surfy, to edit parts of your content with better prompts.
Here’s an example of content under a subheader titled “Brainstorming Techniques.”
I want the advice to be more personable and in a conversational tone.
In my prompt, I asked Surfy to adopt such a tone and to speak on behalf of a professional screenplay writer.
Here’s a snapshot of the content Surfy generated for me.
As you can see, the content reads better and is more effective at communicating my point.
There is no way to tell that a human did not write the content.
6. Use paraphrasing tools
If you’re dealing with AI-written content that feels too robotic or spammy, you can also use a paraphrasing tool to help you effectively replicate human writing styles.
Using paraphrasing tools can help you create content faster while passing AI-checking software.
They can improve the tone of your AI content and work well with AI detection software.
Here are 4 paraphrasing tools to consider.
Surfy
Surfy is Surfer AI’s built-in editing assistant and can help rephrase your sentences or entire paragraphs easily.
Select the paragraph or sentence you want to edit and click the Rephrase option.
Of course, you can also type a more detailed prompt if you want specific paraphrasing of your content.
You can then accept the newly written content or start over.
Grammarly
While primarily known as a grammar and spell-checking tool, Grammarly can also serve as an effective paraphrasing aid.
Grammarly will help you write with clarity and brevity, which is essential for paraphrasing. This program will also correct any punctuation or grammar problems your text may have and detect any plagiarism or AI content issues.
Quilbot
Quilbot is a dedicated paraphrasing tool designed to help users rewrite and rephrase text effectively.
This tool uses state-of-the-art AI algorithms to produce text that understands context, meaning, and the structure of human speech.
Quillbot's AI-powered paraphrasing capabilities enable users to rewrite large amounts of text quickly, saving time and effort while producing high-quality, unique content.
Wordtune
Wordtune is a powerful AI-powered writing tool that excels at paraphrasing by implementing context-aware AI technology to restructure your text into something more human-sounding.
Wordtune also gives you multiple rewriting options, allowing you to choose the version that best aligns with your desired writing style and tone.
7. Use competent AI writing tools
As good as some free AI generators like ChatGPT are, these types of AI programs are easy for AI detectors to find.
One of the best ways to avoid AI detection is by using content focussed AI writing software designed to produce AI content that feels like a human writer.
Instead of just spinning content from other sites, these tools are designed to create content that offers value to readers.
Using a highly-rated AI writer for your articles means that you won't have to spend hours rephrasing or editing your AI content to pass AI detection.
Surfer AI, for example is an AI writing tool that allows you to write complete articles that are optimized for search engines while bypassing AI content detectors.
Surfer's AI tool generates high-quality content capable of surpassing AI detectors by allowing you to choose your tone of voice and organic competitors, so you don't end up with a wall of text that reads like a robot wrote it.
Just toggle on the anti-AI detection switch to create content that will be recognized as if written by a human writer.
Review the AI-written outline for your article and let Surfer AI write a complete article for you in a couple of minutes.
Here's an example of two articles on the same topic, "essential tools for gardening" written by Surfer AI.
We'll enable the anti-AI detector for one of the articles to demonstrate its efficacy and compare it to an article written without using the anti-AI boost.
We didn't use the anti-AI detection option to create the first article.
It's a well written article that covers the topic well and will rank well on search engines.
But the content may not pass an AI text detector if you're really strict about AI content.
In the second article, we switched on the anti-AI feature and generated a new piece of content.
We then used Originality. AI, one of the most popular AI content detection platforms, to detect AI content in our article.
Doing so resulted in an article that was identified as 99% human-written and only 1% AI-created!
Not only will you receive high-quality content that can surpass Google’s detectors with Surfer AI, but you’ll also be able to do this with minimal prompts, with the final result being SEO-ready.
Other AI generators don't create content specifically for search engine algorithms.
8. Use human moderators
Having human editors review the content generated by AI tools can help identify areas that need improvement and ensure that the content is easy to understand and engaging for human readers.
When reviewing AI-generated content, instruct your editors to look out for repetitive or formulaic language, unnatural sentences, and any apparent signs that AI tools generated the content.
Ensuring that all claims made in the content are accurate is especially important. While you can get away with bad grammar with a slap on the wrist, making false claims will land you in content jail.
9. Complicate your writing
I'm not a fan of this technique to circumvent AI content software because it relies on confusing the detector by including text that is difficult to analyze and understand.
You can muddle your content by using irrelevant synonyms and words in your text, but be warned.
While this may cause AI content detectors to struggle to analyze and comprehend the content effectively, it will also confuse your readers.
Replacing letters in words with punctuation and symbols can help you get rid of AI content detection. For example, rewriting the word "data" to "d@t@" or changing "digital" to "d1g1tal".
This method creates slight text deviations that can confuse AI detection tools while remaining mostly legible to human readers.
Substituting certain letters or symbols with visually similar Unicode characters is another potential tactic to circumvent AI content detectors. Doing so will transform the visual representation of words but not their meaning.
You can also swap certain letters or symbols with their visually similar counterparts, called homoglyphs. Examples of homoglyphs involve characters from the Latin alphabet and similar-looking characters from other alphabets or scripts.
The Latin lowercase letter "a" (from the English alphabet) and the Cyrillic lowercase letter "а" (used in Russian and other Slavic languages) look almost identical but are different characters with different Unicode values.
The letter "o" can be replaced with the number "0," or a Cyrillic character that resembles a Latin one can be used.
Consider this method a last resort in exceptional circumstances because doing so will make it harder for search engines and readers to comprehend your writing.
Can Google detect AI content?
It isn't perfectly clear, but it is very likely that yes, Google can identify Al-generated text using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms.
The search engine giant has vast access to data and is developing its own AI tools, so must be able to pinpoint AI-generated text.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if Google detects your work as AI-generated according to Google’s search guidelines, which state that their main goal is to reward original, high-quality content however it is produced.
Here's a snippet from their documentation on AI content.
Google’s goal is to reward quality content that is helpful for people, not just search engines.
So AI-generated is perfectly fine as long as it’s written with people in mind first.
Should you hide AI content?
You shouldn't worry too much about hiding AI content because as we've just discussed, how you generate content doesn't matter to search engines.
Google and other search engines' objective is to reward quality content that helps the end user, irrespective of whether the content is generated by AI or a human.
Some of the biggest companies in the world use AI content to launch their success to new heights. Some of these companies include:
Google employs AI technologies to write ads by automating ad creation, understanding the context of ad copy, generating ad suggestions, optimizing bidding strategies, targeting audiences more effectively,
BuzzFeed
Buzzfeed leverages AI-driven technologies to optimize content, personalize user experiences, and write both entertaining quizzes and entire articles using AI.
BankRate
BankRate uses AI to power its chatbots, assist with fraud detection, and create AI-written content for human review.
When should you avoid using AI content?
Avoid using AI-generated content when you are writing for YMYL niches or need to demonstrate expertise stemming from personal experience in your profession.
One of the main considerations when using AI content is making sure that you remain compliant with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, and it’s the set of guidelines that Google uses to determine the legitimacy and quality of the content it delivers to its users.
The health and finance genres are commonly considered YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niches and should blend human oversight with AI content.
Here are a couple of instances when you should avoid relying on AI content.
Complexity and personalization
Health and finance are highly complex fields that often require personalized advice based on individual preferences and risk tolerance. AI algorithms are unlikely to be sophisticated enough to consider all these factors and provide tailored recommendations.
Liability and accountability
In cases where AI-generated advice leads to negative outcomes, assigning liability and accountability can be challenging.
Legally, it's difficult to determine if the AI, the developer, or the end user should be held responsible for any consequences resulting from the advice.
Inaccurate or outdated information
AI algorithms rely on data to make predictions and provide advice.
If the data is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, AI-generated advice may lead to a potentially dangerous outcome.
Ethical considerations
There are serious ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI in health and finance, such as potential biases in the algorithms or the impact of AI-generated advice on job displacement for human professionals in these fields.
To remain compliant with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, you should review and edit any content generated using AI content tools.
Key takeaways
- Combine AI-generated and human-written text to improve the content’s quality and make it more challenging for AI detectors to spot AI usage.
- Eliminate as many repetitive keywords and phrases as possible and write in a natural tone to help bypass Google’s AI-detecting algorithms.
- Using descriptive prompts when crafting AI content will produce higher-quality text that will feel emotional, sentimental, and conversational.
- Paraphrasing tools can help your text feel less robotic or spammy and help create text that better replicates human writing styles.
- The role of including human-written text to ensure the authenticity and uniqueness of the content to pass AI content detectors cannot be overstated.
Conclusion
As search engines continue to evolve and refine their algorithms, their ability to detect AI-generated content will become increasingly more sophisticated.
But it's essential to remember that search engines prioritize providing users with high-quality, relevant, and valuable information and are not concerned with how content is written.
The key to success in content is striking a balance between human and AI-generated content. By including human intervention and sharing personal insights, you can harness the power of AI while delivering meaningful content that resonates with your target audience.
