Bad news for teachers and good news for students; OpenAI is on the fence about releasing its tool that accurately detects ChatGPT-generated content. The tech giant has been working on the tool for around two years, with the tool being release-ready for a year now. But, as The Wall Street Journal reports, the company is internally divided on the idea of making it publicly available.
Back in May of this year itself, OpenAI released a blog post, shedding some light on the importance of “understanding the source of what we see and hear online.” The very point of this post was to reveal to the world how OpenAI is working on “creating new technology that specifically helps people identify content created by our own tools.”
Now, as soon as the WSJ’s report went live, OpenAI updated this very blog post with some information on the different methods they’re using to detect audiovisual content origins. These are:
- Text Watermarking
- Text Metadata
- C2PA Metadata for AI-generated Images
AI Detection Tools with over 99% Accuracy
The text watermarking method is what will allow folks to identify a ChatGPT-written assignment or research paper. Now, while OpenAI does state that this is “highly accurate and even effective against localized tampering, such as paraphrasing” they also talk about how,
it is less robust against globalized tampering; like using translation systems, rewording with another generative model, or asking the model to insert a special character in between every word and then deleting that character – making it trivial to circumvention by bad actors.
But, according to some internal documents that WSJ saw, this very text watermarking method turned in a beyond impressive 99.9% efficiency. So, while OpenAI goes on to talk about how this could potentially stigmatize AI writing for non-native English speakers, personally, I don’t see how it hampers the greater good.
I even asked ChatGPT if it has any text watermarking standards in place, and here’s what the AI chatbot had to say:
ChatGPT states that while there’s no built-in mechanism as such, “OpenAI uses various techniques to detect AI-generated content, but these are typically not accessible to end users.”
Is OpenAI All About Using AI Responsibly
OpenAI has been used to be all about using AI responsibly. So, if you already have a weapon to prevent academicians from cheating, what’s stopping you from releasing it to end users? Well, turns out that a ChatGPT survey unveiled how 30% of its users will use the chatbot less if watermarking comes into being.
Isn’t that their problem? Why isn’t OpenAI sticking to its ethical standards? Everyone knows that ChatGPT is not perfect, especially since it displays the “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info,” message right underneath the text panel.
So, if students are taking the AI-generated content as is and pasting it as their final assignment, they should be taught not to do so. The AI reliance is all too real, and text watermarking has the potential to break that very vicious cycle.
Even ChatGPT asks you not to use AI as a tool to complete assignments on your behalf since it can, and I quote, “impede your educational development and may violate academic integrity policies.” Smart.
I think even your own AI tool knows what it’s supposed to be used for, OpenAI.
Not to mention that OpenAI’s work on C2PA Metadata for AI-generated images is a lifesaver on its own, having over 99% accuracy in determining whether an image is generated by DALL-E or not. From displaying the edits made to AI-generated images to showing the tools used, this is some solid origin tracking that needs to be made available to the public.
AI content watermarking is how you can make people use AI responsibly. When students know that there’s something out there to detect if they use AI-generated content, they will not use it to do all their heavy lifting. Instead, AI will start getting used as the reliable helping hand that it is.
While text watermarking is not perfect and even if it is released, there will be workarounds, it won’t be as easy as it is now to pass AI-generated content as your own. If you ask me, OpenAI should stick to contributing to its authenticity standards like it has planned on doing, instead of taking steps back when the time is right.
