Provenance
Accused of posting AI content: how to show your work
Quick answer
Show the process, not a detector score. Version history from your editor or CMS, dated drafts, notes and sources, and original photographs with their files are the evidence that settles authorship. Detector results, including favourable ones, prove little. Answer calmly, show what you have, and add authorship signals to future posts.
On this page
Why this happens to honest writers
Accusations usually start with a detector score or a hunch about style. Both are weak evidence. Independent testing by Weber-Wulff and colleagues found no detection tool accurate or reliable enough to support accusations, and Liang and colleagues found detectors flagging non-native English writers far more often. Clear, well-organised writing can look machine-like to both people and tools. The guide to whether an AI detector can judge a social post explains why short posts are the weakest case of all.
Evidence that settles it
| Evidence | Where to find it | Why it persuades |
|---|---|---|
| Version history | Your editor, CMS revisions, document history | Shows the text growing over time with real edits |
| Dated drafts and notes | Local files, note apps, email to yourself | Shows thinking before the final wording |
| Sources you used | Bookmarks, reading lists, citations | Shows research that shaped the piece |
| Original image files | Camera roll, exports with metadata or credentials | Shows capture and editing history |
| Explaining the work | A call or a reply | Shows understanding a copied text rarely brings |
WordPress keeps post revisions by default on most setups, which is often the fastest proof available: the revision screen shows how a post changed from first save to publication. For images, the original files with their metadata or Content Credentials do the same job, as checking Content Credentials explains.
How to respond
- Ask what the claim rests on. If it is a detector score, say so plainly and point to the published research on false positives.
- Offer the evidence that fits the setting: revision history for a client, a short public note for readers, the platform's appeal route for a label.
- Do not run your text through detectors until one says human; results from other tools prove as little as the first.
- If you did use a tool for part of the work, say exactly what it did. Precise disclosure ends most disputes faster than denial.
Make the next accusation less likely
Put a named author on every post with an author page, and carry authorship into the share card, as the guides to byline schema and authorship tags describe. Publish a short disclosure policy and follow it, using the wording in disclosure lines that survive a share. None of this proves authorship on its own, but it gives readers a person to trust and a record to check. The rest of the provenance section covers images.
Sources
- Weber-Wulff et al., Testing of Detection Tools for AI-Generated Text (2023)
- Liang et al. (2023), detectors of machine-written text are biased against non-native English writers
- C2PA, the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity
Questions
How do I prove I did not use AI to write something?
Show the writing process: revision or version history, dated drafts, notes and sources, and be ready to explain the work.
Can I use an AI detector to clear my name?
Not convincingly. Detectors disagree and published tests found none reliable enough to serve as evidence either way.
Does WordPress keep proof of how I wrote a post?
Post revisions, when enabled, record each saved version with a date, which shows how the post developed.
Should I disclose if I used a tool for part of the work?
Yes, precisely. Say what the tool did and what you did. Specific disclosure is more credible than a general denial.
Hannah Voss, Editor. Checks every guide against a working WordPress install and the networks' current documentation. Last reviewed September 2026.
Related reading
- Can an AI detector judge a social post?Why AI text detectors are least reliable on the short, informal text of social posts and captions, what published tests found, and what to rely on instead.3 min read
- Byline schema in WordPress: marking up a human authorMark up article authors with schema.org Person data in WordPress: the fields search engines read, author pages, sameAs profiles and common mistakes.4 min read
- AI disclosure lines that survive a shareWhere to put an AI assistance disclosure so it reaches readers who only see the share card: titles, descriptions, bylines and the first lines of a post.3 min read
- Authorship tags for shared links: author, article:author and fediverse:creatorAdd authorship signals to link previews: the author meta tag, article:author, twitter:creator and fediverse:creator, with WordPress code and testing steps.3 min read