ChatGPT Creator OpenAI Releases 'Imperfect' Software to Identify AI-Generated Text

OpenAI says the ChatGPT detection tool is very unreliable on texts under 1,000 characters, and AI-written text can be edited to trick the classifier.

By Reuters | Updated: 1 February 2023 10:29 IST

ChatGPT Creator OpenAI Releases 'Imperfect' Software to Identify AI-Generated Text

Photo Credit: Pixabay

ChatGPT, a free program that generates text in response to a prompt, debuted last November

Highlights

OpenAI's classifier finds automated misinformation, academic dishonesty
AI-generated text from tools like ChatGPT can be identified
Public beta mode to allow for feedback in order to improve the tool

OpenAI, the creator of the popular chatbot ChatGPT, has released a software tool to identify text generated by artificial intelligence, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.

ChatGPT is a free program that generates text in response to a prompt, including articles, essays, jokes, and even poetry, which has gained wide popularity since its debut in November, while raising concerns about copyright and plagiarism.

The AI classifier, a language model trained on the dataset of pairs of human-written and AI-written text on the same topic, aims to distinguish text that is written by AI. It uses a variety of providers to address issues such as automated misinformation campaigns and academic dishonesty, the company said.

Baidu Working on a ChatGPT-Style AI Chatbot, Will Launch Soon

In its public beta mode, OpenAI acknowledges the detection tool is very unreliable on texts under 1,000 characters, and AI-written text can be edited to trick the classifier.

"We're making this classifier publicly available to get feedback on whether imperfect tools like this one are useful," OpenAI said.

“We recognize that identifying AI-written text has been an important point of discussion among educators, and equally important is recognizing the limits and impacts of AI-generated text classifiers in the classroom."

ChatGPT Usage Banned in French University Over Concerns About Plagiarism

Since ChatGPT debuted in November and gained wide popularity among millions of users, some of the largest US school districts, including New York City, have banned the AI chatbot over concerns that students will use the text generator to cheat or plagiarize.

Others have created third-party detection tools including GPTZeroX to help educators detect AI-generated text.

OpenAI said it is engaging with educators to discuss ChatGPT's capabilities and limitations and will continue to work on the detection of AI-generated text.

ChatGPT Wrote Essays and Passed a US Law School Exam: See Results

The Infinix Zero Ultra has a decent set of specifications on paper, but does the phone justify its high asking price? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.