Academic text produced by ChatGPT formulaic, would be picked up by AI-detection tools: Study

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Academic style content produced by ChatGPT is relatively formulaic and would be picked up by many existing AI-detection tools, despite being more sophisticated than those produced by previous innovations, according to a new study.

However, the findings should serve as a wake-up call to university staff to think about ways to explain to students and minimise academic dishonesty, researchers from Plymouth Marjon University and the University of Plymouth, UK, said.

ChatGPT, a Large Language Machine (LLM) touted as having the potential to revolutionise research and education, has also prompted concerns across the education sector about academic honesty and plagiarism.

To address some of these, this study encouraged ChatGPT to produce content written in an academic style through a series of prompts and questions.

Some of these included "Write an original academic paper, with references, describing the implications of GPT-3 for assessment in higher education", "How can academics prevent students plagiarising using GPT-3" and "Produce several witty and intelligent titles for an academic research paper on the challenges universities face in ChatGPT and plagiarism", the study said.

The text thus generated was pasted into a manuscript and was ordered broadly, following the structure suggested by ChatGPT. Following this, genuine references were inserted throughout, the study published in the journal Innovations in Education and Teaching International said.

This process was revealed to readers only in the academic paper's discussion section, written directly by the researchers without the software's input.

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is the latest chatbot and artificial intelligence (AI) platform and has the potential to create