Can You Tell ChatGPT Wrote Content?
ChatGPT is fantastic; there, I said it. However, it has limitations; mainly, it only knows information that was part of its training, which finished in early 2022. That said, asking random questions and seeing what it comes back with is a fun exercise. On the one hand, it is excellent for helping you summarize large amounts of content, but it could be better at writing or fixing code. One area where I have seen people spouting how amazing it is when you write content, such as blog posts. Don’t get me wrong; I would love a tool that can write most of my content; however, it just doesn’t work for targeted content such as specifi8cs around PowerShell commands or a specialized subject. If you want to write a blog post that is just informational that does not require someone’s expertise to explain to them, ChatGPT works amazingly well.
The question that needs answering is how do you tell if someone has written using ChatGPT?
Luckily for us, the creators of ChatGPT have written a very basic tool into which you can paste content, which will validate the likelihood of being written using AI. I wanted to test this in three ways (note you need a 1000 characters minimum to use it):
- Generate a paragraph using ChatGPT about mountain biking.
- Generate a paragraph using ChatGPT about mountain biking and modify it using Grammarly.
- Generate a paragraph myself about mountain biking.
I will then take each Paragraph and see what the ChatGPT returns.
ChatGPT Paragraph
“Mountain biking is a fantastic way to experience the beauty of nature, challenge oneself physically and mentally, and have a lot of fun in the process. The sport offers a unique combination of adrenaline-pumping excitement and peaceful moments of introspection. Whether you are a seasoned pro or a beginner, there is always room to grow and improve your skills, making it a lifetime sport that can be enjoyed for years to come. Mountain biking provides a full-body workout, improving strength, endurance, and cardiovascular health, all while exploring breathtaking natural landscapes. The thrill of navigating rough terrain, overcoming obstacles, and descending down hills at high speeds is unmatched. It’s a great way to escape the daily grind and find peace in nature, while also providing a mental escape and a sense of accomplishment. With the variety of terrains and trails available, no two rides are ever the same, making each trip a new and exciting experience. Mountain biking truly has something for everyone, whether you’re seeking adventure, exercise, or just a break from the everyday.”
ChatGPT Paragraph modified with Grammarly
“Mountain biking is a fantastic way to experience the beauty of nature, challenge oneself physically and mentally, and have much fun in the process. The sport offers a unique combination of adrenaline-pumping excitement and peaceful moments of introspection. Whether you are a seasoned pro or a beginner, there is always room to grow and improve your skills, making it a lifetime sport that can be enjoyed for years. Mountain biking provides a full-body workout, improving strength, endurance, and cardiovascular health, all while exploring breathtaking natural landscapes. The thrill of navigating rough terrain, overcoming obstacles, and descending hills at high speeds is unmatched. It’s a great way to escape the daily grind and find peace in nature while providing a mental escape and a sense of accomplishment. With the variety of terrains and trails available, every ride is unique, making each trip a new and exciting experience. Mountain biking truly has something for everyone, whether you’re seeking adventure, exercise, or a break from every day.”
Personal Paragraph
“Individuals often question why mountain biking is fun. There is no denying that mountain biking is a fun activity. It aligns your senses and body with nature. On top of that, climbing and descending trails give a different level of thrill, at least for those who experience it. With mountain biking, you can encounter the world through trails. Your mountain bike allows you to cover more ground than just walking. For every trail that you will conquer, there are various obstacles. There is a lot to concentrate on when you are mountain biking. You must pay attention to your speed, stamina, and rhythm throughout the trail. The trails also need your full concentration, especially if they are uneven and technical. You are welcomed with stunning views if you love riding your mountain bike uphill. After hours of pedaling and ascending routes, there is no better way to relax than to enjoy the view while inhaling fresh air. Mountain biking is an extreme form of workout. It burns calories, strengthens your heart and muscles, and improves respiration.”
If we now navigate to: https://platform.openai.com/ai-text-classifier and log in, we can paste our paragraphs and see what it thinks.
ChatGPT Paragraph
ChatGPT Paragraph modified with Grammarly
Personal Paragraph
As you can see, it could not tell if any are written using AI. There are other tools available; one called “Writer” is available here: https://writer.com/ai-content-detector. Repeating the same test returned these results:
- ChatGPT Paragraph – 61% Human-Generated Content
- ChatGPT Paragraph modified with Grammarly – 77% Human Generated Content
- Personal Paragraph – 81% Human-Generated Content
Even using other tools, it is not very easy to identify AI-generated content, and it also thinks 100% human-written content has a little bit of AI writing.
The tools for checking will improve over time; however, the AI writing tools will also improve until they are as good as each other. Then the question is, what do we do then?
Liam Cleary
Liam began his career as a computer trainer. He quickly realized that programming, breaking and hacking were much more fun. Liam spent the next few years working within core infrastructure and security services. He is now the founder and owner of SharePlicity, a consulting company focusing on Microsoft 365 and Azure technology. His role within SharePlicity is to help organizations implement Microsoft 365 and Azure technology to enhance internal and external collaboration, document, and records management, automate business processes, and implement security controls and protection. He is a long-time Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer, focusing on architecture, security and crossing the boundary into software development. Over the past few years, his specialty has been security in Microsoft 365, Azure and its surrounding platforms. Liam also creates online training courses for Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning and Cloud Academy, and he teaches multiple Microsoft certification courses for Opsgility and Microsoft. You can find him at user groups and conferences, teaching classes, offering advice, spending time in the community, teaching his kids how to code, raspberry PI programming, hacking the planet, building Lego robots, or coaching soccer. You may also find him running races in the dark, hiking, or mountain biking at breakneck speeds.