mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Uncertainty in Authorship: Why Perfect AI Detection Is Mathematically Impossible

arXiv 2509.11915 ↗First posted 15 Sep 2025cs.CLcited by 2

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Abstract (arXiv)

As large language models (LLMs) become more advanced, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between human-written and AI-generated text. This paper draws a conceptual parallel between quantum uncertainty and the limits of authorship detection in natural language. We argue that there is a fundamental trade-off: the more confidently one tries to identify whether a text was written by a human or an AI, the more one risks disrupting the text's natural flow and authenticity. This mirrors the tension between precision and disturbance found in quantum systems. We explore how current detection methods--such as stylometry, watermarking, and neural classifiers--face inherent limitations. Enhancing detection accuracy often leads to changes in the AI's output, making other features less reliable. In effect, the very act of trying to detect AI authorship introduces uncertainty elsewhere in the text. Our analysis shows that when AI-generated text closely mimics human writing, perfect detection becomes not just technologically difficult but theoretically impossible. We address counterarguments and discuss the broader implications for authorship, ethics, and policy. Ultimately, we suggest that the challenge of AI-text detection is not just a matter of better tools--it reflects a deeper, unavoidable tension in the nature of language itself.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 13 of its 24 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 15 Sep 2025.

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13 of 24 references.

References · 13

  1. 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,399
  2. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  3. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 14,132
  4. 2021On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Modelscited by 4,033
  5. 2021Ethical and social risks of harm from Language Modelscited by 966
  6. 2023A Watermark for Large Language Modelscited by 725
  7. 2023Testing of Detection Tools for AI-Generated Textcited by 90
  8. 2024Humanizing Machine-Generated Content: Evading AI-Text Detection through Adversarial Attackcited by 27
  9. 2024Detecting AI-Generated Text: Factors Influencing Detectability with Current Methodscited by 23
  10. 2024Detection of Machine-Generated Text: Literature Surveycited by 8
  11. 2022On the uncertainty principle of neural networkscited by 4
  12. 2024Stylometric Watermarks for Large Language Modelscited by 4
1 more
  1. 2025Distinguishing AI-Generated and Human-Written Text Through Psycholinguistic Analysiscited by 3

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Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 1.

2 papers.

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  1. 2023Counter Turing Test CT^2: AI-Generated Text Detection is Not as Easy as You May Think -- Introducing AI Detectability Index
  2. 2026Show, Don't TELL: Explainable AI-Generated Text Detection
  3. 2025AuthorMist: Evading AI Text Detectors with Reinforcement Learning
  4. 2022The Ethical Need for Watermarks in Machine-Generated Language
  5. 2023Paraphrasing evades detectors of AI-generated text, but retrieval is an effective defense
  6. 2026Beyond AI-Generated Labels: Watermarking, Co-Creation, and Conflation of AI-Generation with Disinformation
  7. 2024DUPE: Detection Undermining via Prompt Engineering for Deepfake Text
  8. 2026GPTZero: Robust Detection of LLM-Generated Texts