Does artificial intelligence have a place in the classroom? That’s yet to be decided as generative AI tools, namely ChatGPT, continue to rock the higher education sphere. What we do know is that efforts to curb cheating have steadily increased since its inception.
OpenAI, the chatbot’s creator, launched its own AI-writing detector several weeks ago, yet it’s not 100% accurate, according to the company. They recommend that the classified not be the sole indicator of plagiarism, but instead “as a complement to other methods of determining the source of a piece of text.”
Most recently, the well-known plagiarism catcher Turnitin announced that it has successfully developed a generative AI detector that is capable of identifying 97% of text written by ChatGPT with a less than 1% false positive rate. It is expected to be available as early as April 2023.
“Based on how our detection technology is performing in our lab and with a significant number of test samples, we are confident that Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities will give educators information to help them decide how to best handle work that may have been influenced by AI writing tools,” said Chief Product Officer Annie Chechitelli in a statement. “Equally important as our confidence in the technology is making the information usable and helpful and in a format that educators can use.”
The company also published an AI writing resource page to support educators in their efforts to address AI writing and generated text.
“As AI text generators like ChatGPT quickly evolve, our educator resources will, too,” according to their resource page. “Curated and created by our team of veteran educators, our resources help educators meet these new challenges.”
For example, there are resources outlining what educators are saying about AI-generated text, as well as a guidebook for approaching tools like ChatGPT in the classroom.
“We are very happy to see productive conversations taking place across the education community about academic integrity and tools to ensure the authenticity of authorship,” said VP of AI Eric Wang. “Teachers should use Turnitin’s detector to have fulsome conversations with students about this technology.”
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