Months after its initial release, OpenAI has taken down its AI classifier as it struggled to accurately discern whether a piece of text was written by a large language model or a human.
“As of July 20, 2023, the AI classifier is no longer available due to its low rate of accuracy,” says OpenAI in a statement. “We are working to incorporate feedback and are currently researching more effective provenance techniques for text, and have made a commitment to develop and deploy mechanisms that enable users to understand if audio or visual content is AI-generated,” said the GPT-4 company.
Before it was discontinued, the classifier was a free tool that users could simply copy and paste text into in order to determine whether the content was AI-generated or not. The intent was that this would have proved useful in discerning the originality of emails, blog posts, essays and other written materials.
Detecting AI-generated text
During its release, OpenAI cautioned that its AI classifier was, ‘Not fully reliable’ and acknowledged its tendency to wrongfully identify human-written text as AI-generated. OpenAI also advises users not to completely rely on bots like ChatGPT while still promoting their use.
In addition, the classifier exhibited overconfidence in its predictions, as OpenAI pointed out, stating that it would sometimes be extremely confident in an incorrect prediction.
OpenAI initially launched its AI classifier to address concerns about students using AI-generated content to write essays and do homework. However, the company also cautioned educators not to rely solely on the classifier’s predictions, but to use it as a guide along with other methods to determine the source of a text.
Accurately detecting AI-generated text has proven to be a challenging task. Similar tools created by various developers and companies have also been unreliable. OpenAI remains committed to resolving this issue after pledging to create digital watermarks for AI-generated content as part of its promise to the Biden-Harris administration.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
