Is This ChatGPT Writing or You, a Human?

Have you ever read a story and wondered if it was AI-assisted?

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow expat who was hired to teach English in a local school. We met online as she reached out to me with the idea of creating a community of black expats here in Monterrey. She has charm and “spunk” — and I instantly liked her.

Shortly thereafter, I learned that she was leaving the city to pursue her goals elsewhere and invited her for a visit. My husband and I chatted with her for about three hours and bid farewell.

She has an engaging Facebook presence where she showcases her adventures. She is an authentic entertainer. I find myself glued to her videos laughing at her funny antics.

Recently my husband and I began chatting about our impressions of her. There were a few verbal cues that made us wonder how could she be a professional English teacher. Something didn’t click.

When we glanced at her posted bio, we found telling evidence: she never completed any degree or certification in English nor did she graduate from the traditional high school.

I recognize many master English without a formal degree. I am driving at a different point altogether.

Given enough time with an individual, you can begin to identify their unique voice patterns complemented by a more complete picture of who they are and how they communicate.

Consider the following case.

Those of us who were teenagers in the 80s can perhaps more vividly recall the sensation of the duo, Milli Vanilli, when they hit the charts! It was a new sound and many of us loved it.

I distinctly remember the moment they were interviewed after their performance. I thought to myself, “How are their voices so different from the sound of the songs they sing? Can voices change when artists sing?”

I was perplexed. There were questions. Doubt was seeded.

Later everyone would learn that Morvan and Pilatus never sang the songs; they were lip-syncing.

“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.” Brad Feld

Many writers use the help of AI-powered writing tools. However, once you have extensively read or met an author, I believe you can easily differentiate between their writing voice versus stories that are heavily aided and written by these AI tools.

Given enough time with an individual, you can begin to identify their unique voice complemented by a more complete picture of who they are and how they communicate.

I’ve witnessed this on Medium. It troubles me at my core. To what extent is another writer trying to pull the wool over my eyes? I crave transparency as a reader and the minute I sense falsehood — I’m immediately turned off from their writing.

Why not just include an addendum in the kicker or at the bottom of the article, AI-assisted? What fear, if any, do writers carry hiding the fact that they are using an AI tool in their writing?

Displaying that addendum validates the author or presents telling feedback. Therefore, what fruitful purpose does it serve to hide this information?

My husband wanted to see whether ChatGPT could come up with a calculus presentation on the solution to a problem I needed to present in an interview. He fed it the instructions and within seconds it displayed the steps that anyone can follow to solve the given problem.

The steps were clear and in the proper sequence. However, there was no human flavor to its presentation.

It was precise. Cold. Seemingly flawless. Upon further inspection, I found an error.

Questions still swirled in my head. Would this precise presentation charm an audience?

Does it inspire?

Does it breathe connection?

Can you trust it?

While writers may continue to dab with AI to enhance their writing, I feel confident careful readers can see through the facade.

Just as AI continues to learn, reason, self-correct, and create, humans will continue to be a part of the evolution process. Human intelligence will not stagnate with a growth mindset.

I believe humans can learn to differentiate between the two.

The path we walk as writers distinguishing what makes our writing voices unique while embracing our human flaws reinforces and inspires original creative thought — emphasis on the word, original.

As a reader, I am moved and inspired to action when I read writers who harness their voices with pride and enthusiasm. They toil and invest in the effort of syncing their voice with thought to activate a unique communication style.

When a reader knows the author is the one writing within a few lines of their stories, a symbiotic relationship is formed.

And guess what?

It’s not artificial.

Thanks for reading. Consider the following taken from the article below if you continue to rely on the tool to help you identify AI-written text.

OpenAI’s “classifier” tool can only correctly identify 26% of AI-written text with a “likely AI-written” designation and provides false positives 9% of the time.