Tracing Thought: Using Chain-of-Thought Reasoning to Identify the LLM Behind AI-Generated Text
On the map: LLM reasoning → Prompting and chain-of-thought reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
In recent years, the detection of AI-generated text has become a critical area of research due to concerns about academic integrity, misinformation, and ethical AI deployment. This paper presents COT Fine-tuned, a novel framework for detecting AI-generated text and identifying the specific language model. responsible for generating the text. We propose a dual-task approach, where Task A involves classifying text as AI-generated or human-written, and Task B identifies the specific LLM behind the text. The key innovation of our method lies in the use of Chain-of-Thought reasoning, which enables the model to generate explanations for its predictions, enhancing transparency and interpretability. Our experiments demonstrate that COT Fine-tuned achieves high accuracy in both tasks, with strong performance in LLM identification and human-AI classification. We also show that the CoT reasoning process contributes significantly to the models effectiveness and interpretability.
Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Prompting and chain-of-thought reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 16 of its 21 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 23 Apr 2025.
Builds on
16 of 21 references.
References · 16
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4 more
- 2023Towards a Robust Detection of Language Model Generated Text: Is ChatGPT that Easy to Detect?cited by 23
- 2023Classification of Human- and AI-Generated Texts: Investigating Features for ChatGPTcited by 18
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 2.
3 papers.
- 2025From Perception to Reasoning: Deep Thinking Empowers Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 1
- 2026Findings of the Counter Turing Test: AI-Generated Text Detectioncited by 0
- 2026Agentic and Generative AI for Open-Source Intelligence and Cyber Investigations: Taxonomy, Evaluation, Challenges, and Future Directionscited by 0
- 2026Agentic and Generative AI for Open-Source Intelligence and Cyber Investigations: Taxonomy, Evaluation, Challenges, and Future Directions3 Jul 2026
- 2026Findings of the Counter Turing Test: AI-Generated Text Detection20 May 2026
- 2025From Perception to Reasoning: Deep Thinking Empowers Multimodal Large Language Models17 Nov 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2025Reasoning Beyond Language: A Comprehensive Survey on Latent Chain-of-Thought Reasoning
- 2024On the Hardness of Faithful Chain-of-Thought Reasoning in Large Language Models
- 2025Eliciting Chain-of-Thought in Base LLMs via Gradient-Based Representation Optimization
- 2023ThoughtSource: A central hub for large language model reasoning data
- 2024Fine-Tuning on Diverse Reasoning Chains Drives Within-Inference CoT Refinement in LLMs
- 2026Making LLMs Say What They Think: Measuring and Improving CoT-Interpretability Alignment
- 2024How Likely Do LLMs with CoT Mimic Human Reasoning?
- 2025CoT Vectors: Transferring and Probing the Reasoning Mechanisms of LLMs