Bristol student invents software to tackle AI essay cheats

A student at the University of Bristol has invented software that detects essays written by AI bots like ChatGPT.

Ed Daniels began testing the potential of coding in his school days, when he would take over pupils’ screens and convince them they were haunted.

The Film and Television with Innovation student is now using his skills for a greater good, by inventing software called AIED.UK, which scans essays for AI-generated content and calculates the probability it was written by a bot.

Unlike alternative AI detectors, AIED.UK is focussed on spotting academic cheating.

The programme uses sentiment analysis – a tool used by social media giants to detect and categorise opinions – and has been trained on both AI and human-generated content.

The programme can be downloaded and run on any computer; all users must do is feed it a .docx or .pdf file.

AI bots like ChatGPT use big data sets and complex algorithms to produce informed and well-written answers to user searchers.

Ed Daniels studies Film and Television with Innovation at the University of Bristol – photo: Ed Daniels

The technology has been taken up by global search engines such as Google and Bing, and is set to transform the way people consume and create information.

Some are understandably concerned about the impact this will have on academic integrity.

Ed, who has used the technology in the past, including to write comical news articles, believes it is being used across universities by students keen to upgrade their grades.

“Once ChatGPT gained popularity I knew it was going to be used to cheat,” Ed told Bristol24/7.

“I think eventually it will be integrated into university, but currently if someone pays £20 a month they get access to better software which could lead to better grades.

“So I mainly want the detectors to be used in this transition phase as the unis catch up to ensure equality.

“Lots of students are using it! It’s impossible to tell unless they have used it very poorly.

“I think most students are using it in a ‘hard-to-detect’ way – the same way some students might plagiarise but then change words to not get caught.

“However I have heard of students that have been caught as their writing standard increases exponentially with no increase with their performance in person at seminars.”

There are also issues with the AI-software itself, Ed points out: “I think it’s a cool bit of kit and there are so many interesting services popping up based on it.

“I do think more people need to be aware of the problem of hallucinations (where ChatGPT just lies) as it may cause problems if people believe everything it says.”

It’s difficult to say how transformative Ed’s software will be. For example, it could be possible to ask ChatGPT to write an essay that is undetectable by software such as his. However Ed is confident AI detectors will be able to keep up.

“It’s mainly a war of computing power,” he said.

“Currently all detectors have had a lot less compute time than the generators, once they catch up it should level the playing field.

“I’m also aware of all the recommendations by Tiktok experts and websites one can use to obscure GPTs results and actively incorporate them into my datasets. It’s a little bit like wack-a-mole though.”

There’s a possibility Ed’s software won’t be welcomed by students, but this doesn’t concern the budding software developer, who has now been awarded funding by the University of Bristol to develop his programme.

How does he respond to criticism? “I’m taking it in my stride,” he said.

“Some of the insults have been quite funny. My favourites so far have been: ‘This is the guy who told the teacher about my homework’ and ‘make an app to detect some B*****s’”.

Main photo: Ed Daniels

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