AI detection tools intended to prevent cheating are inadvertently encouraging students to write more blandly or use AI defensively to avoid false positives, reshaping writing education in problematic ways.

AI detection tools at educational institutions like City University of New York are inadvertently teaching students to write bland, algorithm-friendly prose, with one student's essay about Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron receiving an 18% AI-generated score for using the word 'devoid' that dropped to zero when replaced with 'without', exemplifying the Cobra Effect where anti-cheating policies encourage the very behavior they aim to prevent.