AI: Why Your Professional Emails Might Be Flagged As Bot Content

These days, AI gains a rep as a potential career-killer. Notably, it’s not just for folks who earn off their writing. Even professionals in risk environments like the banking sector could run into problems with it. That’s why tech like CopyScape helps in potential fraud cases. Read on to find out how AI might creep into your emails and what you can do to get around it.

How The Subject Came Up

I tested a theory after an online associate raised the subject in a closed group on Facebook recently. What happened to her ? Well, she’d drafted a standard email without any help at all from AI. Out of habit, when she did a quick search for a named AI inside her email draft, and surprisingly, it got flagged.

Actually, she couldn’t find anything in the email itself, so it seemed that hidden code crept in. How the heck did that happen? Well, she suspected that code hid somewhere inside the Gmail compose window. And, for many professionals, that matters a lot.

Problem-Solving The Issue

For people who write for a living, or who hold important positions at work, unasked for interference from a bot could cause problems. In the discussion that followed, other writers threw in their ideas. One of them, quite clever with tech, said:

If you write an email or type in a program with built-in AI features, hidden invisible characters might end up in your work, even if you didn’t use the help of a bot.

Apparently the email body section where you type leaves a “ghost” mark that makes it look like AI helped you. Notably, advanced fraud checkers easily see that.

Remote Work Hassels

One thing that the covid lockdown did, was introduce remote work as a perfectly good way to earn a living. However, since those days of forced remoteness, AI became increasingly available. And, that’s whether you want it or not.

Another participant in the discussion suggested that “writing in Google Docs and then pasting into the body section of an email inadvertently puts in hidden characters.”

Not everyone in the group writes directly into programs like WordPress. In some instances, they email their work in and the publisher copy-pastes it onto an online article website. Without realizing it, any hidden codes also end up on the website and get pasted over.

Why Does It Matter?

If you can’t see it, why does it matter? Well, advertisers don’t always like associating with AI-flagged work. Another remote worker said that “The website’s layout might jinx advert placements or get the content flagged even if a real person wrote it.”

Some of my friends realized it was an issue a while back. So, they switched to other methods. For instance, one of them never sends work via email with the body text typed into it. Instead, they compose the text in Notepad on Windows, or TextEdit on Mac. Then, they send it off as an attachment. That’s because, in plain text, it’s way less likely that any sort of AI code slips into their communications.

Obviously you can’t always do that and perhaps writing in a text box might be required. Someone suggetsed pasting it “quickly into the email body section directly from Notepad will help.”  Well, I tested the theory. In the screenshot above, you can see where I drafted an email to myself. The first one looks just fine with the Notepad unformatted text pasted in.

Testing The Theory 

When I pressed Ctrl+F and searched for Gemini, (Google’s bot) it immediately flagged the App as at the top of the email. So, that doesn’t seem to work.

Feedback on that brought more comments. A New Zealand writer suggested changing their email service helped. For them, the best options lay between “Proton Mail or Tuta.” Probably, it’s because, unlike big tech products, the apps don’t have tracking codes related to inbuilt AI systems.

Invisible Words Showed Up In URL Paste?

The reason why they changed, arrived after a publisher copy-pasted their email content directly in a website. It looked fine, but when it ended up shared as a link on Reddit, invisible words showed up in the title. So, yeah, it’s a real problem folks.

Do you know other ways to escape communicating without AI sneaking into your working drafts? If so, let us know in the comments below, and remember to come back here often for all your day-to-day news and updates.