arXiv AI
Aug 28

Style as a Confound: False Positives in AI Detection of Non-Native Academic Writing

The study examines how professional English editing influences AI text detectors’ false-positive rates for non-native academic writing. Using 135,389 pairs of original and edited manuscripts, researchers found that detector responses varied widely—some editors increased AI scores while others decreased them—and that score changes correlated with the extent of editing. These results highlight professional editing style as a key confounding factor in AI detection, complicating the distinction between AI authorship and linguistic style.

By Hyeonchu Park, Gahye Jeong, Bugeun Kim