AI Detection vs Human Review: Which One Catches Fake Content Better?

Last Updated: May 29, 2025 by Michael Kahn. Published: May 29, 2025.

Artificial intelligence has helped writers and marketers scale content creation significantly over the last couple of years. One study estimates that 90% of all online content will be generated with AI by the end of next year.

Although AI content is not inherently bad, it does create some concerns. Some bad actors use AI to create misleading content to scam and manipulate people. AI content can also hurt search engine rankings and brand images if companies are not careful. Therefore, it is important to know whether content is made with AI or not. This is why the market for AI detectors is expected to be worth over $12 billion in the next five years. 

You can try to catch AI content with both AI detectors or by simply reading it yourself. But which is better? Let’s compare and contrast the two options.

What Are the Benefits of Using AI Detectors Instead of Having Humans Review Them

There are a number of reasons that you should consider using AI detectors to verify whether content is fake or not. This is why so many people have started using aidetector.com, which is one of the leading AI detectors around. Some of the biggest reasons are listed below.

They have a high accuracy rate

Some critics have warned academics and businesses to be careful about using AI detectors, because they believed that they didn’t have a very high accuracy rate. This was probably true a couple of years ago when they were first released. However, they have become a lot more sophisticated, since they rely on extensive machine learning testing with a growing volume of datasets.

One technology writer has been testing AI detectors for the past two years. He wrote an article last month stating that he tested 10 of them and found that five of them successfully detected AI content every single time.

This test clearly indicates that AI detectors have a high accuracy rate. It is very unlikely that humans reviewing content can tell whether it is written by AI 100% of the time.

They are far more efficient

Another huge benefit of using AI detectors is that they are far more efficient than reviewing content yourself. You can simply copy and paste an article, email or other content into the text field and click the analyze button. The AI detector will usually provide a report in as little as five seconds.

They look at clear patterns

There is a lot of subjectivity when you’re trying to review content for AI yourself. AI detectors are a lot more objective, because they look for clear patterns that are prevalent in content that is generated with AI. This means that people looking at the results of AI detectors can make a much stronger case that the content was made with generative AI than people reviewing the content themselves.

What Are Some Ways that Human Reviewers Can Be Better?

While there are a lot of benefits of using AI detectors, there are some reasons that humans can be better at identifying fake content. Some of the reasons are listed below.

Humans Can Understand Nuance Better

One of the biggest advantages that humans have over AI detectors is that they understand nuance better. They understand humor and nonliteral communication in ways that AI detectors never could. They can also tell when content has unique ideas that actually make sense. They are able to take all of this into consideration when deciding whether content seems to have been written by AI or not.

They Can Look for Patterns in Content that Has Been Manipulated to Evade Detection

The effectiveness rate of AI detectors is usually based on tests on content that has not been edited or generated in a way that helps evade detection. AI detectors are still pretty good at telling when content has been humanized or otherwise edited. However, they are not as effective at doing so. Human reviewers are able to look at content that has been edited and make better inferences.

They Can Make Decisions Based on an Individual’s Writing Style

Some people just have writing styles that tend to be similar to content made with AI. This means that AI detectors can sometimes trigger false positives when reviewing their work. Human reviewers can understand people’s individual writing styles to make fairer decisions. This is why a lot of teachers have started having students do in-class assignments together in our standing of their writing and look for differences and similarities with papers that they can write at home.

Content Should Be Reviewed by Both AI Detectors and Humans

There are both pros and cons of using AI detectors and having humans review content. So what is the best option? Content should be reviewed by humans but it should also be run through an AI detector. This helps people make smarter decisions and avoid missing AI content or unfairly penalizing people that did not use AI.