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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'>Hello Justin. My name is Aaron Di Blasi. In addition to being the volunteer Publisher for Top Tech Tidbits and Access Information News I am also a computer engineer and database specialist by trade with almost 30 years of experience in working with all forms of text and language manipulation algorithms, including LLMs, or Large Language Models like ChatGPT. I’ve written about some of the recent developments in LLMS on the Mind Vault website at: <a href="https://mvsltd.com/news/">https://mvsltd.com/news/</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'>The question you are asking is a complex one, but I will share with you a simple opinion. In my experience, knowing everything that I know about text manipulation algorithms, all the way up to and through the neural networks and LLMS of today, there is no scientifically quantifiable way to say, with absolute certainty, whether or not a particular written piece was written entirely by AI, or whether it was used to assist in writing said particular piece. No one wants to say this out loud. Because people want to sell software.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'>LLMs function based on the statistical probability of words being used in combination, and have been trained on millions if not billions of texts or more. No one human pattern of writing is so unique that it does not follow these same statistical probabilities. Therefore, these programs may list their own thresholds for verified “cheating,” but they’re only guessing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'>There was a piece recently done on this on NBC Nightly News at: <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/some-u-s-schools-banning-ai-technology-while-others-embrace-it-162747973876">https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/some-u-s-schools-banning-ai-technology-while-others-embrace-it-162747973876</a> (which mentions TurnItIn directly) in which they tested the program. They found that it flagged one student as “100% AI” that had written the essay right there in front of them. So no matter what else these programs say, or how often they “might” be right, I don’t, personally, think that student futures should be left to this kind of low probability modeling. I also understand this is not a choice that everyone can make. Which is why is think this information is so important to consider. Hope this helps.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Aaron Di Blasi, PMP<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Publisher </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>(2020-Present)</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Top Tech Tidbits<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>The Week's News in Adaptive Technology<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'><a href="https://toptechtidbits.com/"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;color:blue'>https://toptechtidbits.com</span></a></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'> </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none'>🌐</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Publisher </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>(2022-Present)</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Access Information News <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>The Week's News in Access Information<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'><a href="https://accessinformationnews.com/"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;color:blue'>https://accessinformationnews.com</span></a></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'> </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none'>🌐</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Sr. Project Management Professional (2006-Present)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'>Innovative ideas. 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Publication:</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'> </span><span style='mso-ligatures:none'><a href="https://mvsltd.com/"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;color:blue'>https://mvsltd.com</span></a></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto;mso-ligatures:none'><br><b>CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:</b> This e-mail and attachments, if any, may contain confidential information, which is privileged and protected from disclosure by Federal and State confidentiality laws, rules, and regulations. This e-mail and attachments, if any, are intended for the designated addressee only. If you are not the designated addressee, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this e-mail and its attachments, if any, may be unlawful and may subject you to legal consequences. If you have received this e-mail and attachments in error, please delete the e-mail and its attachments from your computer.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Roboto'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>From:</span></b><span style='mso-ligatures:none'> athen-list <athen-list-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Romack, Justin<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, April 27, 2023 6:24 PM<br><b>To:</b> athen-list@u.washington.edu<br><b>Subject:</b> [Athen] AI-focused plagiarism checkers and assistive technologies<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Howdy y’all!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I’m a strong advocate for AI solutions like ChatGPT and other generative text tools that, when used ethically and responsibly, have the chance to spark new and exciting ways to create and communicate…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>But I’ve had two students in the past 24 hours (with 0 other concerns this entire semester) who have been flagged for plagiarism by TurnITIn (cited as using ChatGPT or AI technologies).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Both use assistive technologies (one is a speech-to-text user and the other uses a text prediction tool). They both also use Grammarly (one says they only made use of Grammarly’s features to change a word here or there, while the other mentions Grammarly helped them re-write entire sentences at a time). I could see the latter example with Grammarly causing issues, unless the first example was being conservative with how they truly used the tool.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Does anyone know much about the underlying technology of word prediction tools or Grammarly? I know there’s some machine learning baked into a lot of the things we use daily… but think LLMs like ChatGPT are notably different than tools that are making recommendations based on content you’ve created yourself.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Related: Has anyone heard about recent updates to TurnItIn that are flagging AI-generated content more aggressively than in the past? I knew this was coming, but hadn’t heard anything about a rollout.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks in advance for my clunky post and questions!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Be well,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>J<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>Justin Romack | Assistant Director<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>Disability Resources | Texas A&M University<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>1224 TAMU | College Station, TX 77843-1224<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>ph: 979.845.1637 | <a href="mailto:justinr@disability.tamu.edu">justinr@disability.tamu.edu</a> | disability.tamu.edu<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS | One Division. 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