ACL 2025 Study: Raters Can't Tell AI Text From Human, But Prefer Anything Labeled "Human" by 30%

ipeirotis · x · 2026-09-10

A Zhu et al. study (ACL 2025 Findings) ran three experiments on text rephrasing, summarization, and persuasive writing. In blind tests, raters could not distinguish AI from human writing — yet once labels appeared, they preferred text labeled "Human Generated" by over 30%, and the same pattern held when labels were deliberately swapped.

The authors argue this bias against AI systematically undervalues AI performance, with implications for human-AI collaboration, especially in creative fields.

Related event: Blind Tests Show People Can't Distinguish AI Writing—Until Labels Bias Them(2 posts)→

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