The tools that flag 'this looks AI-written' are biased against non-native English writers

A peer-reviewed study found AI-text detectors wrongly flagged 61% of essays by non-native English writers as machine-generated on average — one detector flagged 98% — while rarely misjudging native writers. The bias is durable and still the 2026 baseline.

What it means Automated 'is this AI?' signals don't just misfire — they misfire unevenly, penalizing people who write in a second language. That's a fairness problem, not just a noise problem.