Teachers are lining up for a ChatGPT detector created by this 22-year-old in Toronto
As awe-struck Internet users obsessed over the wondrous abilities of ChatGPT, a 22-year-old in Toronto was feverishly crafting a tool to detect its misuse.
“ChatGPT is an incredibly cool innovation,” Edward Tian told CTV News Toronto.
“But it’s like opening a Pandora's Box.”
He would know. The Etobicoke native is a computer science major at Princeton University and spent the last couple years studying GPT-3, artificial intelligence that produces human-like text, just like ChatGPT.
The interactive chatbot is powered by machine learning. ChatGPT essentially swallowed massive swaths of the Internet, learning language patterns in the process that it can recreate in response to a human prompt.
As ChatGPT landed in the hands of the public in late November, Tian played around with the technology alongside friends. They asked the program to write poems and raps.“Wow this is really good,” Tian remembers thinking. “This is better than something I could write myself.”
That high-level of skill was raising alarm bells for educators, who began fearing that their students would hand in essays generated by a machine and they would have no way of knowing or confirming suspicions. Immediately, Tian became aware of this too.
“Everyone deserves to know the truth and everyone deserves a tool at their fingertips that can determine whether something is human or machine generated,” he said.
Luckily, he had time on his hands during winter break and sat down at a coffee shop in Etobicoke to do something about it. The result: GPTZero, an app that can decipher whether something was written by a machine or human.
First, a user copy and pastes text into the app. An evaluation begins, measuring the perplexity, creativity and variability of the writing. Then, GPTZero delivers a score, which leads to a result: either the text was generated by ChatGPT or a human.
On Jan. 3, the app went public. More than 300,000 people tried it and over 7 million people viewed it on Twitter.
“It was totally crazy. I was expecting a few dozen people,” Tian said
In particular, teachers were noticing GPTZero worked in detecting if their students were writing their papers, or not. Now, Tian is building a tool specifically designed for educators. Already, 33,000 teachers have signed up on the product waitlist.
“No one wants to be deceived if something they are reading is misrepresented as human,” Tian said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
W5 Investigates Car security investigation: How W5 'stole' a car using a device we ordered online
In part two of a three-part series into how thieves are able to drive off with modern vehicles so easily, CTV W5 correspondent Jon Woodward uses a device flagged by police to easily clone a car key.
South African government says it won't help 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine
South Africa's government says it will not help an estimated 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country's North West province who have been denied access to basic supplies as part of an official strategy against illegal mining.
'Only in Australia': Couple comes home to find koala in bed
Koalas are normally found in eucalyptus trees, but one couple came home in Australia on Wednesday and were shocked to find one in their bedroom.
Trump's defence secretary pick said women shouldn't be in combat roles. These female veterans fear what comes next
Female veterans fear the progress made for women in combat since then will be reversed after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump announced Pete Hegseth this week as his pick for secretary of defense – a Fox News host and Army veteran who has criticized efforts to allow women into combat roles.
opinion Why the new U.S. administration won't have much time for us
In a column for CTVNews.ca, former Conservative Party political advisor and strategist Rudy Husny says that when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau goes to the G-20 summit next week, it will look more like his goodbye tour.
India's 'most wanted terrorist' arrested in Canada
One of India's most wanted terrorists has been arrested and charged in connection with a recent alleged shooting in Ontario.
A look at how much mail Canada Post delivers, amid a strike notice
Amid a potential postal worker strike, here’s a look at how many letters and parcels the corporation delivers and how those numbers have changed in the internet age.
'The Woodstock of our generation': Taylor Swift photographer credits email to her connection with the superstar
Taylor Swift has millions of fans worldwide, but Brampton, Ont.'s Jasmeet Sidhu has gotten closer to the musical icon than most.
AI could help scale humanitarian responses. But it could also have big downsides
As humanitarian organizations encounter more people in need, they are also facing enormous funding shortfalls. The turn to artificial intelligence technologies is in part driven by this massive gap between needs and resources.