Community Post: Part 6 - GPTZero can't be relied upon to determine human or AI authorship

• I've been quoted 25 times by various publications since 2016
• A platform I started using in 2025 provides a "Check for AI" option
• GPTZero increasingly considers my replies to be AI generated
• Apparently, my English is too perfect to be human

A community post I made on June 4, 2025:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/erikgfesser_journalists-ai-gptzero-activity-7336048147279814658-YdMa?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAArIe1QBT94ulldYZLQKZvpEluUPV-i8LPQ

I've been quoted by various publications 25 times since 2016, and while I've interacted directly with journalists for most of this time, a platform I started using last year sitting in-between journalists and myself now has a "check for AI" option that can be used either by myself or journalists before or after I've submitted a response. In the spirit of a song from 1980 that some of you might recall by an English band called The Vapors about "turning Japanese", GPTZero apparently thinks I'm progressively turning into an AI model, despite the fact that all of my write-ups for journalists have always been written 100% by myself and 100% from my memory without consulting any third-party material. It's a scary thought that tools like this are being relied upon by professionals to gauge as to whether something has been written by people or machines.

UPDATE: I've since had several email exchanges with the platform's employees, including the director of customer success. Due to lack of space, I've included these exchanges in the comments below (summarized and slightly edited for clarity, with names redacted). Notable takeaways: (1) Erik, your English is too perfect to be human. I don't believe that you don't use Grammarly. (2) Grammarly makes use of AI, but let's not bother ourselves with technical details.

Erik: Do journalists typically use the "Check for AI" feature? I've been surprised at the results I just saw after running this feature against all my prior submissions.

Platform (staff): You're right, this feature is available to journalists using our platform. Usage varies, but many journalists rely on tools like this when reviewing submissions. This feature can also help experts such as yourself determine whether submissions might benefit from rewording. Note that the "Check for AI" feature might also flag submissions edited with tools like Grammarly, even if these are 100% human.

Erik: My writing style has been the same for a long time, and I never use tools like Grammarly because I don't need them. You'll notice that the "Check for AI" feature judged my February 2025 submissions to be 100% human, but my April 2025 and June 2025 submissions were judged to be progressively less human and more AI. I suggest that the "Check for AI" model has changed in some way, because my writing style remains the same and many journalists have valued my submissions for quite some time now. A couple journalists with whom I've worked in the past didn't seem to care for proper English usage, and they have a right to feel this way, but it doesn't help when a tool intervenes to doubt submission trustworthiness when these are in fact 100% written by me from memory making use of 0% third party material. I would find it hard to believe that I'm the only one impacted by the "Check for AI" feature in this way. Please consider revisiting whether this feature is in the best interests of your customers.

Platform (director): We interviewed journalists, and came to the conclusion that, of all the products available today to combat AI, GPTZero is most commonly used by them. We integrated the "Check for AI" feature into our platform to educate experts such as yourself, in terms of what you might be unknowingly working against. As my colleague mentioned, even submissions passed through grammar correcting tools such as Grammarly can be negatively impacted. I've personally been affected in this way, in the sense that the output from Grammarly was affecting how "human" and "natural" my writing was coming across by AI tools, due to proper English usage.