AI Text Detector Tips: What Actually Gets Flagged

AI text detectors have become a fact of life. Whether you are a student, a professional, or a content creator, there is a decent chance someone somewhere is running your writing through one. And if you have ever used an AI tool to help with writing, that is probably a little nerve-wracking.

So how do these detectors actually work? What are they looking for? And why do they sometimes flag text that was genuinely written by a human? Understanding the mechanics helps you write better, whether you are using AI tools or not.

How AI detectors work

Most AI text detectors work on a concept called perplexity. In simple terms, perplexity measures how predictable text is. AI language models generate text by predicting the most likely next word at every step. That means their output tends to be highly predictable, low perplexity. Human writing, on the other hand, is less predictable because we make unusual word choices, go on tangents, and structure sentences in surprising ways.

Detectors essentially ask: "Would a language model have written this exact sequence of words?" If the answer is "probably yes," they flag it as AI-generated. Some detectors also look at burstiness, which measures variation in sentence complexity. Humans tend to mix long, complex sentences with short, punchy ones. AI tends to be more uniform.

What patterns get flagged

Knowing what detectors look for is useful not because it helps you game them, but because it highlights the actual differences between AI writing and human writing. Here are the patterns that most commonly trigger detection:

Uniform sentence length

When every sentence in a paragraph is roughly the same length, detectors take notice. This is one of the most reliable signals. Human writers naturally vary their rhythm. AI does not unless specifically prompted to.

Predictable word choices

AI models tend to choose the most statistically likely word at each point. That means they gravitate toward common collocations and avoid unusual word pairings. If your text consistently uses the most expected word in every position, it raises a flag. Humans are more idiosyncratic. We use words that are technically less optimal but that feel right to us.

Formulaic structure

AI text loves a particular template: introduce the topic, present three to five points with even coverage, conclude by restating the main idea. This kind of five-paragraph-essay structure is extremely common in AI output and uncommon in natural writing. Real writing is more lopsided. We spend more time on what interests us and skip what does not.

Hedging language

Phrases like "it is worth noting that," "one could argue," and "it is important to consider" appear disproportionately in AI text. AI models hedge constantly because they are trained to be balanced and non-committal. Real people have opinions and state them without qualifying every sentence.

Absence of errors and informality

This one might surprise you. Perfectly clean, grammatically flawless text with no contractions, no sentence fragments, and no colloquialisms is actually a detection signal. Real writing has imperfections. A missing comma here, a sentence that starts with "And" there. Absolute perfection is, ironically, a sign that a machine wrote it.

Why detectors get it wrong

AI detectors are not as reliable as people think. Multiple studies have shown false positive rates ranging from 5% to over 20%, meaning genuinely human-written text gets incorrectly flagged as AI-generated on a regular basis. Non-native English speakers are disproportionately affected because their writing patterns sometimes resemble AI output in terms of word choice and sentence structure.

Detectors also struggle with certain types of content. Technical writing, formal academic prose, and legal documents are inherently predictable and formulaic, which means they often get flagged even when they are entirely human-written. The detector does not understand context or intent. It only sees statistical patterns.

What this means for your writing

The takeaway is not that you should try to game AI detectors. That is a losing strategy because the detectors keep evolving and the goalposts move constantly. The real takeaway is that the qualities that make writing undetectable are the same qualities that make writing good. Varied rhythm, specific details, personal voice, genuine opinions, and natural imperfections.

If you are using AI as a writing tool, the goal should be to produce a final product that genuinely reflects your thinking and voice. That means the AI is a starting point, not the finished product. Whether you edit manually or use a tool to help, the end result should sound like you.

Writing that sounds like you

The best defense against AI detection is not tricks or workarounds. It is writing that actually sounds human, because it carries the fingerprints of a real person's thinking. That means varying your sentence structure, injecting your own perspective, being willing to be imperfect, and writing the way you actually talk.

If you want help getting there faster, typo transforms AI-generated text into something that reads like a real person wrote it. Not by adding random errors or swapping synonyms, but by restructuring the writing to have the kind of natural rhythm, voice, and variation that human writing has and AI writing lacks.

At the end of the day, the question is not "how do I avoid AI detectors?" It is "how do I make sure my writing actually sounds like me?" Answer that question and the detection problem solves itself.