Is This AI? Longitudinal Analysis of Strategies Used for AI Detection on Two Subreddits

2026-06-21

AI Summary

Amid the proliferation of AI-generated content, the public urgently requires effective detection strategies, yet how these strategies evolve over time remains unclear. This study presents the first large-scale longitudinal mixed-methods analysis of 13,098 posts and 222,060 comments from the Reddit communities r/isthisAI and r/RealOrAI over a period of two years and eight months, systematically identifying twelve distinct user-employed strategies for detecting AI-generated content. The findings reveal that these strategies undergo significant shifts in response to advances in generative model capabilities and changing sociotechnical discourse, illuminating a dynamic adaptation mechanism in public cognitive models. This work establishes the first empirical foundation for understanding AI detection practices in authentic social contexts and offers critical insights for future user education and technology design.

Abstract

As AI-generated content (e.g., "slop") becomes more prevalent online, people are developing strategies to attempt to identify it (or, conversely, to gain confidence that something is not AI-generated). What strategies are people using, and how are they changing over time as generative AI models themselves change? In this work, we catalog and analyze 2 years and 8 months of the AI detection strategies discussed by users of two popular Reddit communities (r/isthisAI and r/RealOrAI) that use the wisdom of crowds to identify AI-generated media. Through a mixed-method analysis of 13,098 posts and 222,060 comments within these communities, we catalog and analyze the prevalence of 12 AI-detection strategies, including examining fine-grained physical details, recognizing trends in AI-created content, and the assumptions people make about what models are capable of producing. Furthermore, we find that these strategies and mental models shift over time in accordance with changing AI capabilities and in response to online social trends. By systematically cataloging users' AI detection strategies, we lay the groundwork for user-facing guidance and future research.

Problem

• AI detection
• generative AI
• online content
• user strategies
• AI-generated media

Innovation

• AI detection
• longitudinal analysis
• crowdsourced identification
• generative AI
• user strategies