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2c23f607
Community Member

Freelancer provided AI written content

Hello fellow Upwork community members

 

A few days ago I hired a freelancer for my blog. Although in my job description I had clearly stated that I wanted non-AI articles, I contacted her about this to make sure and she confirmed that her articles are 100% human written. Three days later she sent her first article for approval. I tested it with an AI detector application and was shocked when I saw the result. The article seems to be a pure AI content. I'm sure about this. But the thing is she declines it and keeps asking me about the application I've used to check her article with. I can't do that as she would make some changes to fool the detector. 

The question is what should I do now? I'm afraid to ask for a refund as she might retaliate by leaving a poor feedback.

 

Thank you

Chua

46 REPLIES 46
prestonhunter
Community Member

Refund thinking hurts clients.

 

If you want to save time and money, I strongly advise you to PROACTIVELY decide to never ask freelancers for a refund.

 

Instead, evaluate their work and quickly fire underperforming freelancers.

 

You are putting too much emphasis on one underperforming, unworthy freelancer. You should put YOURSELF and your project first. Don't spend so much time thinking about that freelancer.

 

Of course you don't like the work that she submitted. End the contract and throw her work away. Focus on the good work done by good freelancers. Does this mean that sometimes you pay for work you don't end up using? Of course. That is what all successful clients do.

 

Your time is too valuable to waste it in pointless conversations with a freelancer like this, someone posing as a writer who is certainly not a real writer and never will be.

Awesome

prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "The question is what should I do now?"

 

Thank her for her work.

Close the contact immediately.

Release all escrow money to the freelancer.

Don't hire her again.

Hire enough freelancers that you get a variety of submissions.

Continue working with the freelancers you like the best. Stop working with the rest.

 

Keep in mind that MOST freelancers on Upwork who claim to be writers are not really writers. Most are spinners who copy content and modify it slightly or use AI tools. You can NOT EXPECT to hire a single writer and find someone suitable for your project. You should expect to hire many freelancers in order to find one or two who will be able to meet your expectations.

This is brilliant

Yeah,

I agree with you on this.

It's a way to see whose writing resonates best with what you want.

 

It's reassuring to see that old-fashioned writers like myself are still valued over AI tools.

9d40957b
Community Member

you stated " I wanted non-AI articles" so it's her fault, and she will leave a poor feedback but you will also, and people will see both yours and her's so they will understand

Correct!!

sajal36
Community Member

I believe it seems that you have sort of decided to not ask for refund. Whatever source of information, freelancer have delivered the work although it is not as per the guideline. I will look into this from 2 perspective 

  1. If you were to write that blog, will that be similar what freelancer have delivered and close to your requirement
  2. If 1 is yes, than I will not let go the freelancer without revision.

My suggestion will be that you let the freelancer know clearly that you expect the revision align to original thought process on the subject. However freelancer will also be required to provide the references that are refered to put across the blog. Due credit have to be given to those references for the article.

 

I believe raise question on the blogs content where you think it is monotonous or not latest. Say for e.g. CHATGPT is providing data from 2021 and before for generating contents. By way of probing you will be able to let the freelancer know that it is essential to follow the guidelines and at the same time reduce the payment as your effort is also involved in the end. 

As a client, it is a waste of my time to ask a freelancer like this to revise her work.

 

When a client continues to communicate with a dishonest freelancer like this, the client is putting the needs and interests of the freelancer ahead of his own needs.

 

That is a mistake. Clients should put themselves and their own needs first.

I understand the client investment of time in getting the revision of the work. Moreover it become bit subjective at this nascent stage of Generative AI to detect content source. For e.g. I detected your message above in AI detector tool and it gave me  update that "Most of your text is AI GPT 100%. However I am sure you have not.

 

However end of day, client is required to do the UAT for the work delivered. In case UAT fails then freelancer have to fix the issue and release revision.

 By putting across the prerequisite like references etc, client is ensuring that freelancer is working transparently. If client effort is involved than they can deduct the payment and not the hire the freelancer again.


Preston H wrote:

As a client, it is a waste of my time to ask a freelancer like this to revise her work.

 

When a client continues to communicate with a dishonest freelancer like this, the client is putting the needs and interests of the freelancer ahead of his own needs.

 

That is a mistake. Clients should put themselves and their own needs first.


I agree with this. How will the "revision" be any better? Don't waste your time. Close the contract and leave honest, brief feedback written in a professional tone.

 

 

9643ece2
Community Member

You should fire her.

 

jr-translation
Community Member

When I receive a machine translation, I do not bother with asking for a revision.

I release the payment, close the contract, leave an honest feedback describing what happend, and wait for the refund.

tlsanders
Community Member

I would be very careful about making the AI accusation in feedback. AI detectors are known to be unreliable at this stage--many even warn you not to rely on them. I know a few freelancers who have had clients wrongly accuse them based on AI detectors, and a few even check their own freshly-written work only to be told it was AI-generated. An accusation like that in a freelancer's review could cripple their business. I know that if a client wrongly accused me of using AI in a review based on unreliable software, I would sue them for trade defamation.

2f863be5
Community Member

First of, I feel you should cross-check the application you are using. Make sure the results produced are reliable.

 

If you're 100% sure that application is accurate, then you can go ahead to end the contract with the freelancer, if she still refuses to own up to her mistakes.

 

As a writer myself, I understand it maybe tempting to use the easy way out, but it's never the best way. I suggest you hire writers with previous work samples that are not AI written. It will help prevent this from recurring.

 

All the best!

lysis10
Community Member



**Edited for Community Guidelines** But I'm also fascinated by it because writers claim that they are getting wrongly accused of using AI by AI detectors. I put some sentences from this into Google and some of them are spun from from Upwork's website (but different pages). Like here for example. If I got this from a writer, I would look further and see if more content was spun. I'm kinda really wondering if the AI detection tools writers claim are incorrectly flagging their posts are indeed correct or the writer is just rewriting content (which is what I suspect) and getting caught.

 

But yeah asking a freelancer who plagiarized work to revise it will just result in head-on-desk moment and you need to cut ties.

"I'm kinda really wondering if the AI detection tools writers claim are incorrectly flagging their posts are indeed correct or the writer is just rewriting content (which is what I suspect) and getting caught."

 

Exactly. I see denials from people who are obviously using the AI programs, but protest vehemently it is their own words. ChatGPT et al. absolutely plagiarize (steal) from people-generated material. It is spinning, and when it's used, businesses have to spend money on an editor to check facts, rewrite awkward or irrelevant phrases and edit. After all of that, it seems simpler and cheaper to have a human write it.

The three or four test posts I generated using GPT4 (on a legal topic) contained no factual errors (versus half a dozen or more in anything I'd seen from a previous version).

I have caught the program delivering the wrong information. Perhaps because you were dealing with a legal topic, it was different? Or, maybe it found your previous writings and spun those?

Up until 7-10 days ago, every single AI generator I tested yielded so many errors it would have taken at least as long to edit the piece as to create one from scratch. On the topics I tested, GPT4 was a significant leap forward. I'm sure there will still be errors--I only generate a few pieces. But, the rate seems to have diminished dramatically, at least in the areas I tested (down from multiple errors per piece to none in the few pieces I ran). 

 

That said, this was basic-level information (How Does Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Work? v. How Will Biden's New Guidance for Student Loan Hardship Discharges Change the Brunner Test Analysis?) and that means that there are by and large clear right and wrong answers. It's also worth noting that the AI versions did nothing to create context or let the reader know what a certain provision meant for them or why they should care. 

The other day I asked GPT4 to answer some questions in an arena I write about often, and a lot of what it fed back to me was extremely close to content I've written in the past--down to some sentences being nearly identical. 

 

I've not had any of my writing flagged as AI, but if Chat GPT is modeling its writing in this area on my past work (or similar, but more likely at least some of mine since there are hundreds of pages of content I've written on this narrow topic around the web), I'd guess it's only a matter of time before some detector notices that the content I write looks a lot like the content AI platforms are stealing from me.

kfarnell
Community Member


It's taken me a while to be able to put my finger on it, but the difference between spun content and AI generated content seems to be the condescension in AI generated content. Yes, I know theoretically you can adjust the tone but that's much harder to judge when English isn't your first language - and many people don't bother fine-tuning to that extent.

 

The line between polite/formal text and patronising is a fine one and context dependent. All the AI content I've read here uses expressions and constructions that makes me want to poke the 'writer' in the eye with a sharp stick, even when the basic content isn't objectionable.

 

If I was imitating AI I'd probably appreciate your contribution and understand your perspective. If I was spinning, I'd tell you this was an interesting conversation, even though we aren't actually conversing - yet, at least.  Because I'm not doing either, I can say well, who'd have thought it? Spinners aren't bottom of the barrel, after all.

2c23f607
Community Member

Exactly! I asked her and she refused to rewrite the article.

re: "I asked her and she refused to rewrite the article."

 

You can't ask a cat to fly.

 

Birds fly.

Cats do not fly.

 

You asked a spinner to rewrite.

 

Spinners don't write. And spinners don't rewrite.

Spinners spin.

That is highly unprofessional.

Your work with a client is never done until the client is satisfied.

 

I guess she only cared about the money, not the service she was rendering.

re: "I guess she only cared about the money, not the service she was rendering."


Yes.

By definitions, spinners do what they do only for the money.

 

Writers care about the service they are providing. They care about writing.

Spinners do not.

Your work with a client is done when you have fulfilled the terms of your contract. Most professionals include clear parameters on the number and extent of revisions that are included. No one ever made a profit doing 17 drafts of a 750-word blog post or a $250 logo because the client can't make up their mind.

alright

sajal36
Community Member

Hi Tong Poh C,

 I believe rewrite and revision are different aspect. As a business user you need to communicate the errors or issues which you think are not meeting your requirement. If you are not able to prove the points that are not meeting your requirement than demanding the re-write is unfair. However if you have defined the AI content detector as your UAT test cases than  you need to communicate the report to freelancer and demand revision.

 

To be very fair review looking from outside, I do not find any of issue you reported which states that work have not meet your requirement other than that detector have reported 100% AI generated content. This could be one of the UAT test case but not all..

1ba9b8ed
Community Member

Didn't like the content? Was the thought put into it not enough to answer your challenges? Was it composed poorly and banally or was it plagiarized? Please write what you didn't like. If the only issue is that it was created using artificial intelligence or completely made by artificial intelligence, let me tell you that today artificial intelligence thinks more rationally than many people and creates more productive work. If that's the only problem, then you can build one yourself or hire someone who can build one without using AI.
- "What?"
- "Are the prices high?"
Yes, that's expected, and you need to get used to it. It's difficult to write and cheap; no one will write or compile on a small budget, except for someone who uses advanced technologies.

P.S. Today, whether here on Upwork or any other similar platform, more than 70% (including myself) use advanced technologies, programs, and tools to be productive and, at the same time, deliver high-quality work.

The client specifically stated no AI. If a freelancer does something the client has stated is not acceptable, then the freelancer is breaking the terms of the contract. AI plagiarizes, makes for terrible reading, and is often inaccurate with outdated or irrelevant text. That's part of the whole AI issues - AI doesn't "think", it can't "think." It is a program that uses written content sourced from human words. You are mixing your AI. AI is used in part by everything from spellcheckers to targeting radiation in cancer treatment. There are differences in the impact of the use. The writing I have seen, and generated, is awful. While some think ChatGPT et al. is the greatest thing ever, many businesses do not allow it.

 

Your opinion, or mine for that matter, doesn't matter at all. It is the client's wish.

Finally, the right and most accurate answer came. I thank you very much for this, Mindia. The truth in your last sentence should be read again and again by those who oppose technological innovations here. No one can stand against leaps in technology (as we are experiencing now).

elisa_b
Community Member

If the OP wanted AI-generated articles for his blog, he could have asked ChatGPT himself, without hiring a freelancer, don't you think?

But that's not the case. The freelancer cheated and behaved unprofessionally.

I have nothing against AI, as long as people don't lie about its use and don't expect to get paid the same amount deserved by someone who actually did the job with their brains, eyes and hands.

1ba9b8ed
Community Member

I agree with you about lies, lies are certainly bad.

So is most AI-generated content. It may be great at certain things, like medical diagnosis and taking the bar exam, but it writes like a 7th grader who has been handed a rigid template and doesn't understand anything at all about the intended audience or why someone might be reading the piece. 

reromens
Community Member

Look I've generated a content with chatgpt:

reromens_0-1679954359885.png

 

 

BUT.........AI Detector says its real

reromens_1-1679954410546.png

 

Ai detector works from some logic. As a AI developer I can assure you that there is no CHATGPT detector at all. In some cases they might get 1-5% accurate result.

 

Thanks

I tried this out the other day, too. Tried a couple of different detectors. One said 84% human created, though not one word of it was.

e72dfcbb
Community Member

I offer Refund option Confidently if my client isn't satisfy with my work but luckily i never found such case in my work now I'm enough confident on my work because i never compromised on content quality.

re: "I offer Refund option Confidently if my client isn't satisfy with my work but luckily i never found such case in my work now I'm enough confident on my work because i never compromised on content quality."

 

Refund thinking hurts clients.

 

My advice to clients is to proactively plan to NEVER ask for a refund. Never ask freelancers for money.

 

If I was looking to hire freelancers and saw one who offered a money-back guarantee or something like that, I would probably feel that means this is not a serious freelancer, and not someone I should hire.

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