Substack Adds AI Detection Tool to Help Readers Spot AI-Generated Content

Substack has introduced a new tool that helps users determine whether the content they are reading may have been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Powered by AI detection company Pangram, the tool is available on the web and iOS app, with an Android launch coming soon.

To use the tool, readers need to select the “Scan for AI text” option from the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of a post. It works only on text longer than 100 words and provides an estimate of how much of the text could be AI-generated or written with AI assistance.

Substack co-founder and CEO Chris Best says the Pangram integration is meant to increase transparency on the platform as AI becomes more prevalent on social media. “The core problem is not people using AI, or the quality of its output,” Best writes. “The problem is when there is a mismatch between a reader’s expectation and reality, especially when they unwittingly invest their attention in something with no human thought on the other end.”

In line with this change, Substack will also allow creators to explain their writing process to readers with a new “How I make this” statement. Writers can scan their drafts with Pangram and will have an option to report inaccurate results.

Best notes that “Pangram can only detect whether AI was used to make the text, not whether great human care went into creating it, nor whether AI tools were used as a source.” However, the goal, according to Best, is to make it easier for someone to choose to invest their time reading a blog post.

“When readers have to wonder if what they’re reading is real, it undermines trust in authorship and threatens the livelihood of writers — including those who use AI tools thoughtfully to produce work they believe in,” Best writes. “Platforms that reward fakeness will create a race to the bottom.”