Last Tuesday, as I sat at my kitchen table nursing a lukewarm cup of coffee, I found myself in a familiar predicament. My cat, ever the playful nuisance, decided to knock my pen off the table yet again, just as I received another rejection email. The reason?
“Your content has been flagged as AI-generated.”
Me? Accused of using AI? I nearly choked on my coffee. With eight years of writing experience under my belt—long before ChatGPT entered the scene—I was baffled. Yet, it appears the digital age has thrust us into a troubling quagmire where AI detectors—flawed and often misleading—dictate the fate of our work.
Let’s face it: AI detectors are about as reliable as a cheap watch. Yet, businesses and editors cling to these tools as if they’re the holy grail of content validation. The fallout from this blind faith?
It’s a grim reality, one that makes me feel like I’m in a modern-day witch trial—if the detector flags it, it must be AI. The irony is palpable and utterly frustrating.
As a writer and editor, I've faced the wrath of these detectors countless times. I’ve seen exceptional work dismissed simply because an algorithm couldn’t appreciate the human touch. It’s disheartening when clients, swayed by the cold calculations of a machine, give you the skeptical side-eye, doubting the authenticity of your craft.
Through trial and error—often laced with colorful language—I developed a quirky method to reclaim our humanity in writing. I call it the Hourglass Framework.