The AI Score Answers the Wrong Question

An AI score can describe a process. Readers still have to judge the contribution.On July 21st, Substack introduced a new “Scan for AI text” feature that allows readers to scan posts to see an estimate of how much of it was written by a human, or with AI assistance. The announcement immediately sparked a wave of comments on Substack, X and Reddit, some of it applauding this feature, some of it condemning it.The Substack PostAgainst ClaudefishingIt’s getting harder to tell what’s real on the internet…Read more7 days ago · 6853 likes · 1687 comments · Chris BestSubstack’s goal is understandable: it wants to keep the platform from being flooded with polished text that contains little human thought behind it. My concern is that a score designed to detect AI assistance can easily be read as a verdict on value, placing writers who use AI thoughtfully for research, editing, or clarity under the same suspicion as those who outsource the work itself.At first I wanted to stay out of the…