OPINION: Since When Did an Algorithm Become the Authority on Who Wrote Something?

OPINION · PAPERBYAI · SUNDAY SPECIAL EDITION
Sunday, October 25, 2026 · Part 1 of 4

We have English Literature, English as a Second Language, English as a Mother Tongue, British English, American English, Canadian English, and Standard English.

Each comes with its own linguistic conventions, vocabulary, expressions, and writing styles.

So here’s my question: Which English are AI detectors trained to recognize?

How accurately can they distinguish British English from American or Canadian English? What about someone writing in English as a second language, influenced by the structure and expressions of their mother tongue?

Who determines what constitutes authentic human writing?

Research from Stanford has already demonstrated that AI detectors can incorrectly classify writing by non-native English speakers as AI-generated.

This raises a troubling question. Have we reached a point where someone’s command of the English language, writing style, or linguistic background can be used against them?

AI detectors attempt to identify patterns associated with machine-generated writing. But identifying a pattern is not the same as establishing authorship.

A false accusation can carry consequences for students, educators, job applicants, and professionals whose credibility depends on their written work.

If we are going to use these technologies to question someone’s integrity, shouldn’t we first establish that they can reliably distinguish between human and machine-generated writing across different linguistic backgrounds?

Since when did an algorithm become the authority on who wrote something?

Source context: Liang and colleagues, GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers (2023). The findings concern the detectors and writing samples tested in that study.