The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews, and even insurance claims, leaving platforms and users alike scrambling to figure out what’s real.
A handful of startups have cropped up in the past couple of years to become the “trust layer” the internet needs — including Pangram. The startup recently snapped up $9 million for its AI detection system and landed a partnership with Substack, which is now using Pangram’s tech to show readers which of their favorite authors use AI to write their newsletters. Pangram also recently dropped a new AI image detection tool.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Pangram co-founder and CEO Max Spero joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into the promise of AI detection tools and where to draw the line between AI assisted and AI generated.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
1:15 Building Pangram: from binary detector to gauging AI assistance
2:06 Why job applications, reviews, and Amazon are drowning in slop
5:39 How Pangram actually spots AI writing
9:26 Where people draw the line on AI-assisted vs. AI-generated
12:50 The false positive problem, and “America has a Pangram problem”
14:30 Detecting fake images, now that AI photos are scarily good
19:13 Competing with GPTZero, Winston, and building “core infrastructure”
21:43 Will good writing jobs actually come back?
23:36 Outro
