ChatGPT owner launches 'imperfect' tool to detect AI-generated text

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.

OpenAI, the creator of the popular chatbot ChatGTP, 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.

In this file photo taken on January 19, 2021 a student completes homework assignments from the university as part of her studies, in Dortmund, Germany. (AFP)

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. 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."

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.

(Reporting by Krystal Hu in Toronto; Editing by Josie Kao)

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.