(UPDATE: Due to the rapidly evolving nature of A.I., the detection tool discussed in this blog post was taken down by its creators. Other detection tools have, and will continue, to enter the marketplace. If you’ve found one you think will benefit other teachers, please share that info. by leaving a reply below.)
Worried about students’ misuse of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence text-generator that OpenAI.com launched two months ago? We all are.
Happily, CommonLit.org and Quill.org combined forces and just launched AI Writing Check, a free and easy-to-use site to help educators detect AI-generated writing.
I ran AI Writing Check through its paces and the service is, if not perfect, really good. The site states that “this tool is accurate 80-90% of the time,” and that clocks with my experience after running a dozen or so narrative and argument pieces through the filter. The creators also advise educators to use this AI scrubber as a tool, not a sword. A positive flag should be a plagiarism conversation starter (free template on page 4 of this PDF), not a condemnation.
Just as I did with TurnItIn.com’s plagiarism checker back in the day, I would model a demo of this with my students to show them that their teacher knows the same hacks they know. Other strategies to help side-step plagiarism problems include gathering an in-class no-tech writing sample in the first week of class and building more in-class writing assignments into your curriculum, like Crazy Essay Week (click here for free materials).
I’m no AI expert and I’ve tinkered with ChatGPT for only about 20 hours, but I’m open to hosting the conversation. What are you experiencing with ChatGPT? Any horror stories? Solutions? I’m all ears.
Robot photo licensed via CanvaPro.
I don’t know the answers, but my students are in the middle of a research paper. When we had the plagiarism talk, we also had the AI talk. I explained that I know how they write (with evidence in portfolios) and how my job is to help them improve and how grading work created by a bot is a complete waste of my time. I’m reminded of the poster that says something like, CHARACTER—the choices you make when no one is watching. Thanks for the resources to combat AI generated writing.
Thanks, Crystal, for your always-thoughtful comments and approach. It sounds like you’re doing it right. I’d add a live-demo of this scrubber to at least show them, in a good-natured way, that you know what they know, too. At the end, though, we do the best we can and that’s all we can do.