Honestly, AI checkers for writing and plagiarism are a weird bunch—some work half-decently, others feel like they’re just rolling dice in the background. I saw @mikeappsreviewer’s rundown (which made me snort, ngl), and yeah, a ton of the “AI detectors” are hilariously off the mark. I’m gonna side-step the whole pure-AI detection obsession, though, because if your REAL concern is actual writing quality and catching plagiarism, there are other heavy-hitters that do more than just try (and fail) to sniff out ChatGPT essays.
First, for straight-up grammar and clarity: Grammarly is the obvious beast—even the free version catches way more awkward phrasing and grammar slips than most others, especially over online stuff. But for academic or really tight editing, try ProWritingAid. It goes deeper into style, repetitiveness, pacing, clichés, etc. Sometimes it nitpicks, but if you wanna sound less like an AI and more like, well, a good human, it helps.
Now, plagiarism—Turnitin’s king in schools (but $$$ and locked behind institutions), so for us mortals: Scribbr, Unicheck, and even Grammarly’s paid plagiarism checker do okay. Copyleaks is another one (which @mikeappsreviewer mentioned), and it’s better at outright copy-catch than AI-vibes detection. Just don’t expect miracles: NONE of these catch every sneaky paraphrase, and if you rely on free checkers, expect lots of “Plagiarism detected: [random Wikipedia fact widely known by everyone].” Which… completely defeats the point sometimes.
On the “does my stuff look like Skynet or Shakespeare” front: For the love of all things sentient, don’t stress too hard about that if your priority is actual originality and readability. Those “AI detectors” are more drama than science, as you’ve seen.
TLDR:
- For quality writing edits, stick with Grammarly and/or ProWritingAid.
- Plagiarism? Copyleaks is passable, but paid tools will always be better.
- AI detection is a meme—don’t lose sleep over it unless your boss/teacher is obsessed.
- Always double-check with more than one tool; false positives are the norm.
If anyone has cracked the code for a checker that gets it actually right, plz drop it here. Until then, I’ll keep mashing CTRL+Z and praying.