When AI Detectors Get It Wrong: The False Positive Problem

Imagine submitting an essay you’ve written entirely yourself, only to be told by a machine that it probably wasn’t your work. No evidence is provided beyond a percentage score, and there’s no way to prove otherwise. Just a number has accused you of something you didn’t do. This scenario may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but it happens more often than most people realize. It’s one of the most serious problems with current AI detection tools, which don’t just flag AI writing – they also flag human writing, sometimes in large numbers, and the consequences land on the writer themselves rather than the tool.