GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers
2023-06-30 00:04:42.844309+02 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
RT Carl T. Bergstrom @ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org
ChatGPT detection and algorithmic bias:
This afternoon James Zou directed me to a recent pilot study from his group in which they looked at the performance of seven different GPT-detectors that are sometimes used to flag cheating in educational settings.
They found that these detectors commonly misclassify text from non-native English speakers as being written by an AI. A primary driver appears to be the lower perplexity (exponent of model's loss) of such text.
ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org Carl T. Bergstrom @ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org
Ironically, these false positives are readily avoided by asking ChatGPT to rewrite the non-native English speaker's text to increase linguistic complexity.
In other words, the way for these speakers to avoid being accused to cheating is to actually cheat.
The take-home for higher ed is obvious and stark. Many (all?) current ChatGPT detectors have not been adequately assessed for issues of algorithmic bias and therefore should not be used to accuse students of misconduct in their written work.