Cited by 42Authorship Attribution and ProfilingAdvanced Steganography and Watermarking TechniquesTopic Modeling

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 212 of the 212 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 63 of the 161 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Authorship Attribution in the Era of LLMs: Problems, Methodologies, and Challenges

Open access
Huang, Baixiang, Chen, Canyu, Shu, Kai·2025·ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter

Abstract

A literature review of human-written, LLM-generated, attributed, and co-authored text detection problems, methods, and challenges.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This survey maps authorship attribution in the LLM era into four problem types and reviews methods, datasets, metrics, and open challenges. It argues that LLMs blur human–machine authorship boundaries and that progress requires better generalization, explainability, standardized benchmarks, and interdisciplinary work.

Key findings

  • The paper organizes the field into four representative problems: human-written text attribution, LLM-generated text detection, LLM-generated text attribution, and human-LLM co-authored text attribution, with complexity increasing across them.
  • Detection approaches are grouped into metric-based and model-based families, including feature-based, neural network-based, zero-shot, and watermarking methods; neural detectors often outperform metric-based ones but are less explainable, need retraining for new LLMs, and are vulnerable to adversarial or poisoning attacks.
  • The survey compares 21 benchmarks/datasets: all support LLM-generated text detection, but fewer support LLM-generated text attribution or human-LLM co-authored attribution, and many treat human-written text as one class, making them unsuitable for identifying individual human authors.
  • Human judgment is weak: untrained reviewers distinguish GPT-3 text from human text at roughly chance level, and experienced faculty/researchers identify GPT-generated academic writing correctly only about half the time. Commercial detectors often claim over 99% accuracy, yet few are tested on shared benchmarks and many have high false-positive rates.

Methods

  • Design: a literature review/survey that synthesizes existing research rather than presenting new experiments.
  • Data/sample: cited prior studies, 21 authorship attribution datasets/benchmarks, and a table of commercial and open-source LLM-text detectors.
  • Analysis: qualitative thematic categorization of four attribution problems, comparison of methodologies, datasets, evaluation metrics, and discussion of future directions.

Limitations

  • Stated: fewer studies address human-LLM co-authored attribution because it is difficult, and existing work often simplifies the task; many datasets are unsuitable for individual human authorship attribution; detectors lack robustness to decoding strategies, prompts, adversarial attacks, unseen domains, and unseen models.
  • Stated: LLM-based attribution becomes less effective as the number of candidate authors grows due to context-length limits, and training-data biases can produce inaccurate attributions for marginalized groups and languages.
  • Evident: as a survey, it provides no new empirical validation or standardized benchmark results, and its comparisons draw on heterogeneous prior datasets and metrics, so reported performance is not directly comparable; the text also does not describe a systematic search or inclusion protocol.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1145/3715073.3715076

Cites

212 of 212 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

63 of 161 cited sources checked · 38 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 57 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 38
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 42
67 of 67
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The proprietary nature of many LLMs restricts access to comparative data, posing significant hurdles.

    “However, the proprietary nature of many LLMs restricts access to comparative data, posing significant hurdles.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The high degree of stylistic overlap among LLMs, especially those with similar architectures or trained on overlapping datasets, further complicates accurate classification.

    “Additionally, the high degree of stylistic overlap among LLMs, especially those with similar architectures or trained on overlapping datasets, further complicates accurate classification.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Hybrid texts may originate as human-written content, with LLMs employed for conditional generation, making it difficult to clearly distinguish between the stylistic features of human and machine contributions.

    “Hybrid texts may originate as human-written content, with LLMs employed for conditional generation, making it difficult to clearly distinguish between the stylistic features of human and machine contributions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There are fewer studies on human-LLM co-authored text attribution due to its difficulty, and existing research often makes simplifications.

    “There are fewer studies on this task due to its difficulty, and existing research often makes simplifications.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The complexity of human-LLM co-authored text attribution increases as users may employ multiple LLMs to compose different sections of an article, further blurring the lines between human and machine-generated content.

    “The complexity of this task increases as users may employ multiple LLMs to compose different sections of an article, further blurring the lines between human and machine-generated content.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Analyzing and classifying texts co-authored by humans and LLMs presents a significant challenge due to the blending of human and machine stylistic features.

    “Analyzing and classifying texts co-authored by humans and LLMs presents a significant challenge due to the blending of human and machine stylistic features.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Human-LLM co-authored texts often start as human drafts and are later extended or revised by LLMs, or the process might occur in reverse.

    “These texts often start as human drafts and are later extended or revised by LLMs, or the process might occur in reverse.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The integration of styles in human-LLM co-authored texts creates a hybrid form that makes it difficult to distinguish distinct authorial markers, thereby complicating the attribution process.

    “This integration of styles creates a hybrid form that makes it difficult to distinguish distinct authorial markers, thereby complicating the attribution process.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Human-LLM co-authored texts pose a more intricate challenge due to the blending of stylistic and linguistic elements from both human authors and LLMs.

    “Human-LLM co-authored texts pose a more intricate challenge due to the blending of stylistic and linguistic elements from both human authors and LLMs.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Manually collecting authorship data is time-consuming and costly, motivating researchers to utilize web data sources such as Wikipedia and Reddit.

    “Manually collecting data is time-consuming and costly, motivating researchers to utilize web data sources such as Wikipedia and Reddit.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Custom datasets for LLM-generated text are easier and more affordable to create, and are often built alongside human-written text to maintain a similar domain and format.

    “In contrast, custom datasets for LLM-generated text are easier and more affordable to create, and are often built alongside human-written text to maintain a similar domain and format.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    LLM-generated and human-written texts are often disproportionate, making class imbalance a crucial issue.

    “Addressing class imbalance is crucial, as LLM-generated and human-written texts are often disproportionate.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The rapid growth of online communication has led to shifts in writing behavior, resulting in shorter, fragmented, and less coherent social media tweets and text messages.

    “However, the rapid growth of online communication has also led to shifts in writing behavior, resulting in shorter, fragmented, and less coherent social media tweets and text messages.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Despite their high accuracy claims, many detectors suffer from high false positive rates, which could falsely accuse individuals of plagiarism and undermine credibility and trust in genuine authors.

    “Despite their high accuracy claims, many detectors suffer from high false positive rates, which could falsely accuse individuals of plagiarism and undermine credibility and trust in genuine authors.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Current authorship attribution methods face limitations when handling a more extensive range of candidate human authors or LLMs.

    “Current authorship attribution methods face limitations when handling a more extensive range of candidate human authors or LLMs, presenting opportunities for future research.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Existing approaches for LLM-generated Text Attribution typically manage only a limited number of authors or models, which restricts their applicability in real-world scenarios where the pool of potential authors or models can be vast.

    “For instance, existing approaches for LLM-generated Text Attribution typically manage only a limited number of authors or models, which restricts their applicability in real-world scenarios where the pool of potential authors or models can be vast.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Domain generalization poses significant challenges due to variability in vocabularies, syntax, and styles across different subjects, complicating accurate authorship attribution.

    “Domain generalization poses significant challenges due to variability in vocabularies, syntax, and styles across different subjects, complicating accurate authorship attribution.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Authors' adaptation to various genres dilutes their identifiable stylistic traits, complicating attribution.

    “Authors' adaptation to various genres dilutes their identifiable stylistic traits, complicating attribution.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Traditional attribution methods struggle to distinguish between human-authored texts and those generated by LLMs, which adeptly replicate these features.

    “Traditional attribution methods, which rely on stylistic and linguistic features to identify an author, struggle to distinguish between human-authored texts and those generated by LLMs, which adeptly replicate these features.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The diversity in datasets and evaluation metrics currently hinders the comparability and generalizability of different authorship attribution methods.

    “The diversity in datasets and evaluation metrics currently hinders the comparability and generalizability of different authorship attribution methods.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Authorship attribution techniques are essential in digital forensics, cybersecurity, and plagiarism detection.

    “Authorship attribution techniques are essential in digital forensics, cybersecurity, and plagiarism detection.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The attribution of text to specific authors or models raises significant ethical and privacy issues.

    “The attribution of text to specific authors or models raises significant ethical and privacy issues.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The potential to reveal the identities of anonymous authors presents significant ethical challenges.

    “However, the potential to reveal the identities of anonymous authors presents significant ethical challenges.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Applications such as linking user accounts across platforms and identifying compromised accounts raise privacy concerns and ethical questions about surveillance and profiling individuals based on their writing style.

    “Applications such as linking user accounts across platforms and identifying compromised accounts raise privacy concerns and ethical questions about surveillance and profiling individuals based on their writing style.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Despite existing measures to prohibit the unethical use of LLMs, these restrictions could be evaded through prompt engineering and jail-breaking, posing risks of phishing and fraud scams.

    “Despite existing measures to prohibit the unethical use of LLMs, these restrictions could be evaded through prompt engineering and jail-breaking, posing risks of phishing and fraud scams.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The increasing difficulty in distinguishing between human and LLM-generated content raises concerns about intellectual property, plagiarism, and accountability.

    “Furthermore, the increasing difficulty in distinguishing between human and LLM-generated content raises concerns about intellectual property, plagiarism, and accountability.”
26 of 26

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Opposing claims about LLM vocabulary diversity

    Minor

    One section says LLM-generated text has greater vocabulary breadth than human writing, while another says humans have greater lexical diversity than LLMs. The text does not explain how these opposing comparisons fit together.

  • Corpus citation points to a different work

    Minor

    The entry cited for the Aston 100 Idiolects Corpus is titled as a paper about GPTZero detection, not the described corpus.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

Items 201–212 of 212

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 20

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  4. [58]58. Rinaldo Gagiano, Maria Myung-Hee Kim, Xiuzhen Zhang, and Jennifer Biggs. 2021. Robustness Analysis of Grover for Machine-Generated News Detection. In Proceedings of the The 19th Annual Workshop of the Australasian Language Technology Association. Australasian Language Technology Association, Online, 119-127. https://aclanthology. org/2021.alta-1.12
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Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Huang, B., Chen, C., & Shu, K.
Affiliations
  • Illinois Institute of Technology (US)
  • Emory University (US)
Venue
ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter
Published
2025-01-21
Volume
26
Issue
2
Pages
21-43
ISSN
  • 1931-0145 (ISSN-L)
  • 1931-0153
OpenAlex
W4406939734
Cited by
42
References
209
Citations by year
2026: 28 · 2025: 14
FWCI
16.71
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (2346158, 2241068, 2339198)
  • U.S. Department of Homeland Security (17STQAC00001-07-04)
  • Cisco Systems
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Authorship Attribution and Profiling
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Topic Modeling
Keywords
authorship attribution, large language models, AI-generated text detection, misinformation, plagiarism detection, forensic investigation, explainability, domain generalization

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