PG loves the world of Artificial Intelligence.
As has been reported before on TPV, there is a lot of concern that students and former students will use ChatGPT to write their papers and generally fail to learn how to write on their own.
PG received an email from Olive, the CEO of ZeroGPT saying that she had a solution. From the company’s website, ZeroGPT the most Advanced and Reliable Chat GPT detector tool.
Since PG hadn’t realized that such a product/service existed, He decided to try out ZeroGPT.
First, PG went to ChatGPT and decided to act like a lazy student who had to write a book report about a book by a well-known author. This lazy student isn’t completely dumb, so he chose Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, which, at 127 pages in the print version, is much easier to read than War and Peace which was written by some Russian guy and clocks in at over 1,000 pages.
But what sort of laze student would this person be if he/she/they actually wasted the time it takes to read 127 pages about an old guy and a big fish? That would take at least 2-3 days because, you know, a gal/guy has to keep up with the text messages from his friends.
So, our lazy student went to ChatGPT and entered the following prompt:
Write a book report on Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea
Before lazy guy/gal got caught up on the latest texts, the highly-talented AI produced the following:
Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” is a short novel published in 1952. The book is set in the waters off the coast of Cuba and tells the story of an aging fisherman, Santiago, who has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Santiago is determined to change his luck and sets out alone in his small skiff to fish in deeper waters.
The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Hemingway establishes the character of Santiago and his relationship with a young boy named Manolin, who used to fish with him but is now forced to work with more successful fishermen. Santiago is depicted as a skilled and experienced fisherman, but his recent lack of success has led some in his community to view him as unlucky. Despite this, Santiago remains determined and optimistic, convinced that his luck will eventually change.
In the second part of the book, Santiago hooks a giant marlin and spends three days fighting it. The physical struggle between Santiago and the marlin is described in vivid detail, and Hemingway’s sparse, direct language creates a sense of intensity and urgency. Santiago is battered and exhausted by the end of the fight, but he manages to kill the marlin and tie it to the side of his boat.
In the final part of the book, Santiago faces a new challenge: sharks are attracted to the blood of the dead marlin, and they begin to attack the boat. Santiago fights off as many sharks as he can with his harpoon and knife, but in the end, they destroy the marlin, leaving only its skeleton behind. Santiago returns to shore, exhausted but proud of his achievement.
At its core, “The Old Man and the Sea” is a story about perseverance in the face of adversity. Santiago’s struggle against the marlin and the sharks represents a metaphor for the human struggle against the challenges and difficulties of life. Hemingway’s spare, direct prose style, which is characteristic of his writing, conveys the stoic, unyielding determination of Santiago.
Overall, “The Old Man and the Sea” is a powerful and deeply moving story that explores themes of human resilience and the struggle to find meaning in life. Hemingway’s skillful use of language and his ability to create vivid, memorable characters make this novel a classic of modern literature.
Looks pretty good, maybe a little too good, but the lazy student can tell the English teacher that no stone was left unturned during the preparation of the book report.
Enter Chat GPT detector by ZeroGPT
This kid’s teacher is no out-of-touch dumbell. The first thing the teacher does is copy and paste the book report into ZeroGPT.
Here’s what ZeroGPT spits out:
Your text is AI/GPT Generated
95.4%
AI GPT*
Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” is a short novel published in 1952. The book is set in the waters off the coast of Cuba and tells the story of an aging fisherman, Santiago, who has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Santiago is determined to change his luck and sets out alone in his small skiff to fish in deeper waters. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Hemingway establishes the character of Santiago and his relationship with a young boy named Manolin, who used to fish with him but is now forced to work with more successful fishermen. Santiago is depicted as a skilled and experienced fisherman, but his recent lack of success has led some in his community to view him as unlucky. Despite this, Santiago remains determined and optimistic, convinced that his luck will eventually change. In the second part of the book, Santiago hooks a giant marlin and spends three days fighting it. The physical struggle between Santiago and the marlin is described in vivid detail, and Hemingway’s sparse, direct language creates a sense of intensity and urgency. Santiago is battered and exhausted by the end of the fight, but he manages to kill the marlin and tie it to the side of his boat. In the final part of the book, Santiago faces a new challenge: sharks are attracted to the blood of the dead marlin, and they begin to attack the boat. Santiago fights off as many sharks as he can with his harpoon and knife, but in the end, they destroy the marlin, leaving only its skeleton behind. Santiago returns to shore, exhausted but proud of his achievement. At its core, “The Old Man and the Sea” is a story about perseverance in the face of adversity. Santiago’s struggle against the marlin and the sharks represents a metaphor for the human struggle against the challenges and difficulties of life. Hemingway’s spare, direct prose style, which is characteristic of his writing, conveys the stoic, unyielding determination of Santiago. Overall, “The Old Man and the Sea” is a powerful and deeply moving story that explores themes of human resilience and the struggle to find meaning in life. Hemingway’s skillful use of language and his ability to create vivid, memorable characters make this novel a classic of modern literature.
Highlighted text is suspected to be most likely generated by AI*
2271 Characters
391 Words
The teen-age slacker has been caught using AI to write the book report. The teacher sends an email to the Principal and all the other English teachers, then the teacher sends an email to slacker’s parents announcing that he is going to flunk the course.
Can you understand why PG loves this stuff?
It’s way fresher than the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (Служба внешней разведки Российской Федерации) vs the CIA.
AI vs. AI Detector Facing Off
Here’s the link to ChatGPT detector by ZeroGPT again so you can try it out yourself.
Another way the world is adjusting to the reality of large language models:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/students-can-quote-chatgpt-in-essays-as-long-as-they-do-not-pass-the-work-off-as-their-own-international-qualification-body-says/ar-AA17Zfle?cvid=5cae36f845b147ed8070d39516ee7ced&ei=47
They’re not going away any more than any other useful tech is going away so the world needs to make room for the changes new tech brings.
“Students taking the International Baccalaureate (IB) will be allowed to use ChatGPT so long as they don’t try to pass the work off as their own.
Matt Glanville, head of assessment principles and practice at the IB, a qualification body that’s popular in Europe, told The Times of London that students would be allowed to quote AI-generated content.”
“The IB said it would work with schools to help students use AI ethically, per The Times. However, Glanville said trying to pass off AI-generated content as original work was an act of academic misconduct.
He told the Times: “The clear line between using ChatGPT and providing original work is exactly the same as using ideas taken from other people or the internet. As with any quote or material adapted from another source, it must be credited in the body of the text and appropriately referenced in the bibliography.”
I thought the Old Man and the Sea essay was solid. I would read that book.
Here’s a good overview.
Artificial Intelligence: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqa8Zo2XWc4
Remember:
– “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.”
Credit where credit is due. I wondered about false positives, so I first ran a paragraph from my notes of 19th century newspaper clippings. I came back entirely clean. Then I put in a chapter from my 2019 book. It came back almost entirely clean, but with about three lines highlighted. Reading that snippet, I realized both that I can see how it has a tone similar to AI text, and that it was not a triumph of English prose. This suggests a perverse use case of highlighting sections of human-written text that might benefit from some additional wordsmithing.
A variant of that is one of the easiest proper uses for large language models: analyzing and critiqueing (but not editing) human text. Done right it can *teach* wordsmithing.
Just FYI, there are already at least a dozen competing apps in this space; just Google “ai content detector” to see a few. Even OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has its own (https://platform.openai.com/ai-text-classifier).
This didn’t remind me of CIA v. KGB (or FBI v. GRU). It reminded me of another icon of the Cold War era:
Spy versus Spy (Mad Magazine — c’mon, admit it, you used to read it hidden behind that boring social studies textbook in sixth grade while you thought the teacher didn’t know, primarily because you didn’t know he kept his copies in the teacher’s lounge†)
Because both sides are going to end up sabotaging themselves by being too clever.
† I wasn’t the one who got caught. It was… it was… Jeff did it!
I entered the following original piece into Zero. I think a worthy goal is to learn how to write like AI in order to fool the other AI.
Your text is Most Likely Human written
27.64%
AI GPT*
The sidewalk is an area by the side of the street reserved for foot traffic.
Typically such areas are paved with concrete, extend between three and four feet in width, and are often separated from the street by a narrow strip of grass.
When people use a sidewalk, they normally adopt a sideways walk.
In doing this, they stand with feet together, facing perpendicular to the street.
Then they extend one foot to the side, shift their weight to that foot, and bring the trailing foot up so both feet are together again.
It’s a very efficient and effective way to walk, allowing people to easily pass each other moving in opposite directions.
However, in a 2018 report, the American Association of Safety Engineers said the sidewalk stride was responsible for the deaths of over eight-million people struck from behind while crossing the street.
Highlighted text is suspected to be most likely generated by AI*
864 Characters
144 Words
There we go.
It was unavoidable. What computer do, computers can detect, be it text, audio, or visual.
Won’t stop the media or luddites from hyperventilating, though.
There are plenty of valuable (that is, profitable) use cases for this tech but faking human creativity ain’t it.