Artificial intelligence (AI) has transitioned from a futuristic idea in movies to a practical tool that permeates various aspects of our daily lives. Understanding its impact is crucial as we increasingly interact with AI technologies.
ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, serves as a significant example of AI’s potential benefits. It aids individuals, businesses, and various industries in multiple ways. However, ChatGPT is not flawless. At times, it provides incorrect or misleading information, which can lead to complications, attracting criticism and even legal challenges for its creators.
Identifying when AI like ChatGPT influences the information or content we consume is more important than ever. Misinformation from AI sources can cause significant misunderstandings and errors.
Businesses that depend on inaccurate data can make poor decisions that may lead to financial losses. On a personal level, misinformation can foster confusion and erode trust in technology.
To mitigate these risks, it’s vital to check the accuracy of AI-generated content and understand its limitations. Users need to verify information carefully and use AI technologies wisely.
Being aware of AI’s role in content creation enhances our comprehension of how technology influences our views and decisions.
In 2023, it incorrectly stated that a U.S. law professor had made unsuitable remarks and advances towards a student during a school trip, citing The Washington Post as its source. However, no such trip occurred, and The Washington Post never published such an article. Essentially, it fabricated the entire story.
This incident highlights one of the many serious flaws in the chatbot’s otherwise remarkable abilities. Generally, it can be a useful tool for obtaining information, but its statements should not always be accepted as true.
As ChatGPT becomes increasingly used for daily online activities and professional tasks, it’s likely that much of the information we encounter online has been influenced or directly generated by AI, often by ChatGPT itself.
The internet is quickly turning into a tricky place where it’s hard to tell apart text written by humans from that generated by AI.
In the future, this might not be a problem – perhaps when ChatGPT-5 arrives. But currently, it’s important for everyone to stay alert and recognize when content is created by ChatGPT.
How to Identify Content Written by ChatGPT
Since humans are the ones who provide the prompts to ChatGPT, the depth of the chatbot’s responses largely depends on the detail provided in the prompt.
If the prompt is vague or lacks detail, especially on complex topics, the response from ChatGPT might also be vague or inaccurate.
To someone who doesn’t have specific knowledge on the topic, this might not be immediately clear. However, to those who are more familiar with the subject, it might be quite apparent that the text was generated by ChatGPT.
Here are the main points to watch for…
Illusions
Experts recommend verifying ChatGPT’s responses, particularly for specialized topics. There have been numerous instances of hallucinations, varying in severity, so it’s wise to double-check its answers with other sources before relying on them.
If you’re knowledgeable about a topic, it’s easier to notice any mistakes in ChatGPT’s responses. For instance, you can easily spot errors in a soccer match report you watched.
However, it might be harder to tell if information about something like the thermic effect of food is accurate when researching.
Read the text thoroughly
ChatGPT is designed to mimic human language and responses closely. Identifying AI-generated text from just a couple of sentences is challenging.
However, reading the entire article thoroughly can reveal certain patterns like repetition, errors, or general language that hint at AI involvement.
While humans can edit ChatGPT’s responses to make them more human-like, this editing process often requires significant effort. In many cases, it’s easier for individuals to write the text themselves rather than extensively editing AI-generated content.
Utilizing Language Broadly and Avoiding Repetition
ChatGPT is a type of AI called ‘narrow’ AI. It can’t understand human feelings or act on its own. Its responses can seem impersonal because it’s programmed to minimize mistakes.
If you ask ChatGPT to write a review, it might miss important details like actors’ names or product dimensions. So, if you see a review lacking key info, it could be from ChatGPT.
ChatGPT might repeat words or phrases, even though it’s trained on a lot of data. This repetition can be noticeable, especially in longer texts.
Rewrite the text to avoid plagiarism without adding extra information, using short sentences and simple language:
Mistakes from Copying and Pasting
This can be one of the simplest ways to tell. Sometimes, people copy ChatGPT’s responses by mistake. They might include its comments like ‘Sure, here’s a movie review for…’
This makes it clear whether what you’re reading was written by ChatGPT or a human, just by human error, not by the AI’s mistake.
How to identify text created by ChatGPT
The emergence of ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots has led to various AI content detectors appearing. These detectors claim to distinguish between human and AI-written text.
The top AI content detectors can identify which parts of text are human and which are AI. Some even provide a percentage estimate of human versus AI content. However, none of these detectors are flawless. They can sometimes misclassify human writing as AI and vice versa.
Employing an AI detector can help spot AI presence in text, especially if doubts linger after examining for repetition, hallucinations, and language patterns.
When dealing with unfamiliar topics, it’s crucial to fact-check ChatGPT responses for safety.
