Princeton student develops app to eliminate ChatGPT cheating

ChatGPT's meteoric rise has certainly opened the door to an entirely different future. But while many imagine how the A.I. technology could create endless possibilities and shift how society operates, few have considered ChatGPT's shortcomings.

Princeton University computer science student Edward Tian is one of those few.

Tian got his first exposure to ChatGPT as an intern on an A.I. team at Microsoft last summer. In an exclusive interview on "The Claman Countdown," he revealed how long the technology has been in the works.

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"To be honest, we knew this was coming. Even this summer, as an intern at Microsoft and their A.I. team, we heard this was coming… We sort of knew the news that it's going to come in Word, in GitHub, in everything," Tian said.

The A.I. technology "arms race" appears to have begun with Google rolling out its own service, called Bard. Microsoft, meanwhile, has launched a new ChatGPT-powered Bing, a move that could lead to more companies integrating A.I. technology into their respective search engines.

Most are excited about the technology's capabilities, but Tian argues users and programmers alike should remain cautiously optimistic.

"We were hearing the buzz around ChatGPT everywhere, and it's an incredible innovation, but it's like opening a Pandora's box," he said. "And when we're releasing these incredible innovations, especially if you're a big technology company, you need to build the safeguards so that technology is adopted responsibly, not months or years after, but right away."

One of ChatGPT's primary criticisms has been its alleged promotion of academic dishonesty.

Since ChatGPT went public in November 2022, teachers nationwide have complained of students using the A.I. technology to plagiarize and cheat on assignments. In January, OpenAI, the research firm behind ChatGPT, released an A.I. detection tool to help educators detect instances of plagiarism.

While home from school over winter break, Tian decided to take it upon himself to establish "safeguards" against cheating. He created GPTZero, an app that like OpenAI's tool, "foils" ChatGPT by detecting and distinguishing between original and plagiarized material.

"When it went viral, over 7 million people saw it. The app just crashed because I couldn't handle that much hosting. The hosting platform stepped in and said this is the biggest app on their platform and gave me free resources," Tian revealed.

According to Tian, over 40,000 teachers from 40 states and 30 countries have signed up for his product waitlist. The success of GPTZero has been inspiring for Tian, who is seeking post-graduation job offers. In fact, the 22-year-old has already caught the eye of Microsoft president Brad Smith.

"He said, 'I'm in Princeton. Let's get lunch Friday.' And I was like, 'I'm still home over holiday break because it's Saturday,'" he said. "And I told my boss as an intern when I was at Microsoft and they said, 'You'd be dumb not to change your flight and take this.' So it's kind of exciting to just sort of see you got kind of thrown into this mix."

But Tian appears prepared to continue to hold Big Tech's feet to the fire. His involvement with ChatGPT has Tian wary of where A.I. technology could go - as well as where it has already been.

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"My gut feeling is in terms of everything from election interference or disinformation. Like back in 2016, you already had Russian Facebook A.I.-generated faces for Facebook bots," Tian said. "Now, these bots can talk like a human. There's a lot to be concerned about, and we need to build the technology, so that technology is adopted responsibly."