Substack partners with AI-detection tool Pangram, allowing users to scan text longer than 100 words for an estimate of how much was written with AI assistance
The Substack PostChris Best
Context & Ripple Effects
Substack is adding a provenance-oriented utility to a creator platform that has previously expanded its publishing controls and workflow features. The move arrives as Pangram's analysis of long-form social posts reported substantial fully AI-generated output, making authorship signals more commercially relevant for publisher-reader relationships.
The partnership also puts a detector into a setting where trust can affect paid writing. Its usefulness will depend on readers and creators treating the result as an estimate, especially given prior scrutiny of false positives when detection is used at scale.
First-order effects
Substack users gain a way to submit text above 100 words for an estimate of AI assistance, giving creators and readers a new signal for assessing authorship.
Pangram gains distribution inside a publisher ecosystem, while Substack can offer an AI-transparency feature without building a detector itself.
Second-order effects
Creators whose work is questioned may face more requests to explain their writing process, while readers can use scan results as an additional—rather than definitive—trust cue.
Other publishing and social platforms may face pressure to offer comparable detection, disclosure, or provenance tools as AI-generated long-form content becomes more visible.
Third-order effects
If such tools become routine, authorship verification could become part of the platform trust stack alongside publishing and monetization features, with detection vendors becoming infrastructure partners.
The core tension will persist: broader use of probabilistic detection raises the cost of false accusations, encouraging platforms to distinguish estimates from proof and potentially favor clearer disclosure mechanisms.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift toward AI-content commercialization platforms adding provenance and trust tooling as generative writing becomes commonplace.
There is going to be a very interesting AI arms-race over the next few months, in a new domain that has generally tried to avoid the question so far. The integration of Pangram into Substack will only increase the profitability of more sophisticated AI writing tools. [image]
Substack keeps earning its reputation as the best place for longform. Congrats to @max_spero_ and @chrisbest both — this is an excellent and much-needed partnership. Transparency is our best option as we move into a world where a large chunk of writing is AI-generated.
Any oracle for “written by an AI” can be used to fine tune an AI to evade the detector. There is no point to such detectors, they cannot work for long, certainly not as commercial products.
This is an important update from Substack. I just plugged in some X posts from some creators who are prolific posters (like 5-10 posts per hour) in Pangram and what do you know... LinkedIn has it the worst but I think @X should do something about this as well. The sad truth is [i…
Substack is filled with AI slop which is extremely apparent - not hard to figure out and it's exhausting; people waxing poetic constantly on random subjects in order to position themselves as some sort of thought leaders. Constant long essays that say.. nothing beyond a surface
One important point with this launch: not all slop is AI, and not all AI use is slop. As we developed this I talked to many people who are using AI with great care to do work they believe in. They are worried about slop too! Because the fake stuff can drive out the real work.
so proud of the whole team for how hard everybody worked to make this a possibility. amazing to get to be at a company where everyone cares so deeply about human art and writing and creativity
Great stuff, with the full Pangram. Fun and if possible I will be turning this on by default. Will only work on text posted going forward - your past AI usage is safe.
This is really cool. I imagine that as Pangram becomes more prevalent there will be more pressure to easily evade it and I really hope that it stays robust, it really feels like magical tech right now and one of my favorite examples of d/acc
We're also introducing tools for creators, including the ability to run Pangram on your drafts prior to publication, and to add a “How I make this” statement where you explain your process and set expectations for readers.
I am pleased to say that you will find all of my work written by me. This is because writing is inextricable, for me, from the learning process, and I write these articles as much for myself as I do for you.
Wowww. This is a very bold move. It's smart for the brand health of Substack overall, but pretty gutsy in how the platform is essentially officially calling out any AI-based newsletters, which is gonna be a lot more than people realize.
Today, Substack is launching an AI detection feature, via an integration with @pangram. Going forward, you'll be able to scan posts, replies, and comments on the Substack app to see an estimate of how much of it was written by a human, or with AI assistance. [image]
Why AI detection is a losing battle for everyone. If readers use it, writers will use it too (and their AI can even help them avoid it). [embedded post]