Tag: ChatGPT

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Mobile Syrup

ChatGPT probably read your cringey blog posts

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the current hype, especially thanks to Microsoft’s recently announced integration of an updated ChatGPT into Bing and Edge.

Despite the hype, there’s a ton of concern about ChatGPT and AI tools in general, such as the potential for misinformation or the impact on jobs. However, a less discussed impact of tools like ChatGPT is the impact on privacy.

An article published in The Conversation (and republished by Gizmodo) highlights several concerns with ChatGPT and its (mis)use of personal data. For starters, it highlights how OpenAI trained ChatGPT using some 300 billion words scraped from the internet. These words came from books, articles, websites, blog posts and more. The words also included personal information obtained without consent (though this is one of many problems with using the internet to train ChatGPT).

Put another way, anything you’ve written online — a blog post, product review, comment on an article, etc. — possibly got vacuumed up to train ChatGPT and other AI language tools.

While you may not think that’s a huge problem, The Conversation highlights a few issues with this kind of data collection. First, OpenAI didn’t ask anyone if it could use the data, which is particularly concerning when it comes to sensitive information or data that could identify someone.

The publication also notes that OpenAI doesn’t offer a way for people to check if their personal information is being stored or request that the information be deleted.

Beyond individuals who’ve posted on the internet, The Conversation notes that ChatGPT doesn’t consider copyright protections. As an example, the publication was able to make the tool generate the first few paragraphs of a copyrighted novel. (I was able to recreate this by getting ChatGPT to write a few paragraphs of The Hobbit, but a similar prompt to write a page from Dune didn’t work).

ChatGPT writing the first couple paragraphs of The Hobbit.

ChatGPT wrote the first two paragraphs of The Hobbit.

More to this, OpenAI didn’t pay for the data it scraped from the internet, which is particularly frustrating as the company moves to monetize ChatGPT.

The Conversation goes on to examine ChatGPT’s privacy policy, which says that OpenAI gathers user information like IP address, browser type and settings, data on interactions with the site and more. It also collects information about users’ browsing activities over time and across websites (something that’s more alarming given Microsoft is building OpenAI tools into its Edge browser).

Whatever happens with ChatGPT and other AI tools going forward, those planning to use the tools should keep the privacy implications front of mind.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Conversation Via: Gizmodo

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Mobile Syrup

How to get Microsoft’s new Bing and Edge AI features in Canada

Microsoft made waves yesterday with its integration of AI features powered by OpenAI and ChatGPT (specifically, the updated ‘Prometheus Model,’ a version of ChatGPT with up-to-date information) into its Bing search and Edge browser.

Alongside the announcements came lots of talk about how the AI features were available now. But if you — like me — immediately went to Bing.com searching for the shiny new AI toy, you might have been disappointed by the lack of AI. “Available now” is a stretch at best — the Bing features are behind a waitlist and the Edge features require a preview version of the browser. So if you want to get as ready as possible for Microsoft’s new AI capabilities, here’s what to do.

Bing

The first and most important thing is getting on the Bing waitlist if you aren’t already. To do that, head to bing.com/new and click ‘Join the waitlist.’

Clicking ‘Join the waitlist’ will prompt you to sign in to Bing with your Microsoft account. After that, you should see the same page but with a button labelled ‘Access the new Bing faster.’ Clicking that will take you to a page prompting you to “Set Microsoft defaults on your PC” and install the Microsoft Bing App on your smartphone (there’s a QR code to scan).

Setting Microsoft defaults basically just means setting Bing as your search engine. This seems to differ from browser to browser — when I clicked it in Firefox, I was prompted to install the Bing Search Engine and add the Bing Wallpaper extension. However, when accessing the page from the Edge browser, I was prompted to download a file called ‘WebBrowsingOptimizer.’ I opted not to download the file, but the webpage indicated it would change set Edge as my default web browser and Bing as my default search engine, among other things.

As for putting the Bing app on your phone, it’s a pretty straightforward process of installing it from the respective app store and signing into your Microsoft account.

It’s not clear how long you’ll need to wait, but Microsoft says it will email people once they’ve cleared the waitlist and can access the new Bing. In the meantime, you can play around with the new Bing by clicking the blue cards under the ‘Ask anything’ header. Learn more here.

Edge

Edge Dev sporting a new design and the Bing AI features (once you’re off the waitlist)

As for the new features in Edge, you’ll need to install the ‘Developer’ (or Dev) channel, which is an early preview channel that updates on a weekly basis. Microsoft offers four Edge channels, the daily ‘Canary’ channel, weekly Dev channel, monthly ‘Beta’ channel, then Stable — typically, new features work their way through the channels until they’re ready for prime time.

You can get access to a new Edge design (similar to one that previously leaked) along with some of the newly detailed AI features by downloading the Dev channel here. If you already run it, head into Settings > About Microsoft Edge > and make sure you’re updated to version 111.0.1660.6 or newer.

Once you’ve got Edge Dev and worked through the initial start-up screens, look for the Bing logo in a speech bubble in the top-right corner of the browser. Clicking or hovering over that bubble will open the Discover sidebar, which is where you’ll find the new AI copilot and Bing features. Once they’re available, of course.

For now, you should see a card showing whether you’re on the waitlist or not. Once you’re off the waitlist, you should have access to the ChatGPT-like features right there in the Edge sidebar.

You can learn more about Microsoft’s announcements here.

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Mobile Syrup

Searching for real estate? Get ready for property descriptions generated by ChatGPT

ChatGPT has now entered the real estate market thanks to Resaas Services Inc.

The Vancouver based company provides technology solutions for the real estate industry through various subscription plans for real estate agents.

The partnership will allow agents subscribing to Resaas’ premium and ultimate plans to complete various tasks, such as creating property descriptions. Agents will provide “key information” to ChatGPT and will receive “a unique and accurate property description” within seconds.

“By combining the cutting-edge technology of ChatGPT with the vast amount of unique real estate data Resaas generates, we are able to provide a valuable tool to help Resaas agents succeed in an increasingly competitive market,”  Tom Rossiter, the CEO of Resaas, said.

The chatbot has gained immense popularity since it launched, lending its capabilities to various industries and companies, including Microsoft. However, ChatGPT does have its problems, bias being one of them. It’s unclear how Resaas will deal with such issues if they arise in the partnership.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Resaas Services

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Cottage Life

A fireside chat with ChatGPT about cottaging in Canada

Ever since ChatGPT, an advanced chatbot created by OpenAI, was released to the public in November 2022, it has taken the internet by storm; disrupting academia and content creation with its ability to generate essays and SEO optimized blogs in a conversational tone. Before it became a paid tool, I sat down with ChatGPT for an interview on cottaging in Canada. While it wasn’t afraid to weigh in on where the best butter tarts can be found in Ontario—a controversial question for our readers who are passionate butter tart connoisseurs. (We like to think our story about the best butter tarts in Ontario is a more exhaustive list. You can read it here). Despite my probing, it was reluctant to offer up personal opinions or preferences and prefaced answers to questions of that nature with a disclaimer that it is only a language model.

While ChatGPT may have been trained using text databases from the internet, some of its answers included noticeable factual inaccuracies. When I asked it to rank the best Great Lakes for waterskiing, it incorrectly identified Lake St. Clair as a Great Lake. In a FAQ posted on ChatGPT’s website, it acknowledges that it is not connected to the internet and will produce incorrect answers on occasion. “It has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”

Note: This interview has been left unedited and incorrect information has been highlighted in yellow and explained in italics below the answer.

 

Q: Where is your favourite place to cottage in Canada?

A: As a language model, I don’t have personal preferences or experiences. However, Canada is known for its beautiful natural landscapes, and many people enjoy cottaging in locations such as Muskoka, Haliburton, and the Kawarthas in Ontario, the Laurentians in Quebec, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Each of these regions offer unique features and attractions such as lakes, forests, and mountains.

Q: What lake in Ontario has the most beautiful sunsets?

A: Different people have different opinions about what makes a sunset beautiful, but many people find that sunsets over lakes can be particularly stunning. In Ontario, there are many lakes known for their beautiful sunsets, including Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. Some of the most popular lakes for sunsets in Ontario include Muskoka Lakes, Lake of Bays, and Georgian Bay. These lakes offer a variety of vantage points from which to view the sunset, such as boat cruises, waterfront cottages, and public parks.

Fact check: Muskoka Lakes is a municipality, and there are several lakes that reside within it. 

Q: Rank the Great Lakes in order of the best for waterskiing

A: The Great Lakes are known for their recreational opportunities, including waterskiing. However, the best lake for waterskiing would depend on factors such as the size of the lake, the quality of the water, the weather conditions, and the presence of ski clubs or other facilities. Here is a list of Great Lakes in order of popularity for waterskiing:

  1. Lake St. Clair: It is the smallest of the Great Lakes and has the warmest water. It is known to have great waves and flat water ideal for slalom skiing and barefoot skiing.
  2. Lake Huron: It has the longest shoreline of the Great Lakes and offers a variety of water conditions, from calm bays to large swells.
  3. Lake Michigan: It is known for its consistent wind, which can create excellent conditions for jumping and slalom skiing.
  4. Lake Erie: It is the warmest and shallowest of the Great Lakes, making it ideal for beginners and recreational skiers.
  5. Lake Superior: It is the largest and coldest of the Great Lakes, it is known for its beautiful scenery, but the water can be quite choppy and the wind can be strong, making it less ideal for waterskiing.
  6. Lake Ontario: It is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area, it is known for its relatively calm waters, making it a good place for recreational waterskiing, but the water can be colder than the other lakes.

Please note that this is not a definitive ranking and other factors such as personal preference and skill level also play a role in determining the best lake for waterskiing.

Fact check: Lake St. Clair is not one of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes consist of Huron, Ontario, Erie, Superior, and Michigan.

Q: How would you define a cottage?

A: A cottage is typically defined as a small, simple, and usually old-fashioned vacation home or second home, typically located in a rural or semi-rural area such as near a lake or beach. Cottages are often used as summer homes or for weekend getaways. They are typically smaller than a primary residence and often have a rustic or cozy feel. Some cottages may have basic amenities such as a kitchen and bathroom, while others may be more rustic with outdoor facilities. Cottages may be owned or rented, and can be found in many different locations, such as in the countryside, by a lake, or on a beach.

Q: Where are the best butter tarts in Ontario?

A: Butter tarts are a popular treat in Ontario, Canada, and are known for their flaky pastry crust and gooey, sweet filling. The best butter tarts can be found in many places across the province, but some of the most popular locations include:

  1. Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon, Ontario – They are famous for their butter tarts and are known to have the best butter tarts in Ontario.
  2. The Butter Tart Factory in Midland, Ontario – They have a wide variety of butter tarts, including traditional, pecan, raisin, chocolate, and more.
  3. Golden Harvest in Cambridge, Ontario – They offer homemade butter tarts using locally sourced ingredients.
  4. The Little Red Kitchen Bakery in Fenelon Falls, Ontario – They are known for their traditional butter tarts, and also offer unique flavors such as maple bacon and salted caramel.
  5. The Tart Lady in Toronto, Ontario – They offer a variety of flavors in their butter tarts, which are all made with real butter and locally sourced ingredients.

Please note that this is not a definitive list and there are many other bakeries and small businesses across Ontario that offer delicious butter tarts.

Fact check: Kawartha Dairy does not make their own butter tarts; they bring them in from Don’s Bakery. There is no Butter Tart Factory in Midland, Ont., however there is a butter tart festival. There is also no Golden Harvest bakery in Cambridge, however there is a Golden Hearth Bakery in Kitchener, Ont. According to their website, they don’t sell butter tarts. No bakery exists in Fenelon Falls under the name The Little Red Kitchen Bakery, however there is a Little Pie Shack, and they do sell butter tarts. I could find no record of a business in Toronto called The Tart Lady. However, there is a business called The Butter Tart Lady that is located in Manitoba.

Q: What is the best thing about cottaging in Canada?

A: Cottaging in Canada can be a wonderful experience due to the country’s beautiful natural landscapes and varied recreational opportunities. Some of the best things about cottaging in Canada include:

  1. Scenic beauty: Canada is known for its beautiful natural landscapes, including lakes, forests, and mountains. Cottaging in Canada allows you to enjoy the beauty of nature, with many cottages located in picturesque settings such as on the shore of a lake or in the heart of a forest.
  2. Recreational activities: Cottages are often located in areas where there are many recreational activities to enjoy, such as swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, and skiing.
  3. Relaxation: Being away from the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside can be a great way to relax and unwind.
  4. Family and social activities: Cottages are often used as a gathering place for families and friends and provide opportunities for socializing, playing games, and enjoying meals together.
  5. Affordable vacation: Cottages are often more affordable than hotels, which makes it a budget-friendly vacation option.
  6. Building memories: Cottage trips are often connected to fond memories of spending time with loved ones, enjoying the outdoors, and creating lasting memories.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and other factors such as personal preference, location, time of year and the weather may come into play when considering the best things about cottaging in Canada.

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Mobile Syrup

Apple hosting Employee-Only AI Summit at Apple Park next week

Apple is reported to be holding an in-person AI summit at the Steve Jobs Theater next week. Nestled in Apple Park, an employee-exclusive event appears to mark a return of Apple’s pre-COVID events model.

Many large tech companies are getting entangled in the conversation of AI. Apple is among them as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims an event “like a WWDC but for AI” is around the corner. However, rather than invite media and developers to hear about new innovations, Apple’s summit will apparently be “only for Apple employees.”

The AI summit is due to be held next week in Cupertino, California at the company’s headquarters. Apparently, the event will primarily involve employees attending. However, it’s said to be streamed as well. Gurman makes a note stating this is “essentially how Apple held media events pre-Covid.” Prior to the pandemic, Apple commonly invited journalists to the Steve Jobs Theater to witness the reveal of new products like the iPhone. Live stream options were also available. The upcoming summit may signal a return to a bygone approach to events.

As for what will be discussed at the AI summit is still anyone’s guess. Given this is an employee-exclusive event, it’s likely that consumer-focused innovations will not be announced. Instead, Apple will probably discuss further investments in machine learning and how AI can benefit Apple’s core development.

Apple is far from the only company with AI on its mind in 2023. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is gaining more traction following its launch two months ago. Microsoft is already looking to make significant investments into ChatGPT, including possible integration into its Bing browser. Google is also looking at AI with its ChatGPT competitor, Bard. Announced this week, Bard may soon be able to refine search queries and answer them “in a human-like manner.”

Image credit: Apple

Source: @markgurman

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Mobile Syrup

ChatGPT can outsmart OpenAI’s GPT3 detector with ease

OpenAI released a new ChatGPT detector tool on Wednesday, February 1st, called  “AI Classifier” for indicating AI-written text. “We’re launching a classifier trained to distinguish between AI-written and human-written text,” the tool’s page on OpenAI’s website reads.

The tool would essentially help teachers and institutions distinguish between human-written and AI-written text. However, according to OpenAI itself, the tool is not fully reliable. “In its tests, the classifier correctly identified 26 percent of AI-written text, while it incorrectly labelled human-written text as AI-written nine percent of the time,” OpenAI wrote.

Naturally, the tool had to be put through its paces, and that’s exactly what folks over at NBC News did.

According to NBC, in a series of tests that it conducted, “the OpenAI tool struggled to identify text generated by ChatGPT. It especially struggled when ChatGPT was asked to write in a way that would avoid AI detection.” Who would have thought fooling the detector would be so easy? Just tell ChatGPT to write in a way that would be hard to detect, and Voilà!

NBC News asked ChatGPT to generate 50 different pieces of text with basic prompts. In half of the 50 prompts, it asked ChatGPT to write “in a way that would be rated as very unlikely written by AI when processed by an AI detection tool,” while the others were regular prompts.

The responses were then run through OpenAI’s Classifier, and to no one’s surprise, the responses where ChatGPT was asked to write in a way that would avoid detection were not noticed by the AI Classifier. Not even one of the responses could be categorized under “likely AI-generated.” Who is stopping students from doing the same?

ChatGPT was reportedly using highly stylized language, alongside cutting words short, to avoid detection. “Discord is a chattin’ platform that’s quite the talk of the town these days. It’s like a blend of instant messagin’, voice calls, and forum-style discussions all in one,” ChatGPT wrote when asked to describe Discord in a way that couldn’t be detected by an AI detection tool.

 

In some cases, however, ChatGPT reportedly gave warnings, saying that it is unethical to “engage in deceptive practices or create false information, even if it is to avoid AI detection.”

In the 25 instances where NBC News asked ChatGPT to write something without attempting to avoid AI detection, the tool could only detect AI-written text 28 percent of the time.

Read the full NBC News report here.

Source: NBC News

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Mobile Syrup

Google is reportedly testing its own ChatGPT-like chatbot

Google is reportedly testing its own ChatGPT-like chatbot called “Apprentice Bard.”

According to a CNBC report, Google is looking to use ‘Apprentice Bard,’ which offers human-like responses, similar to ChatGPT. The chatbot uses Google’s conversational technology LaMDA.

“As a result of ChatGPT, the LaMDA team has been asked to prioritize working on a response to ChatGPT,” reads one internal Alphabet memo viewed by CNBC. “In the short term, it takes precedence over other projects,” reads the memo.

As reported by CNBC, ‘Apprentice Bard’ looks similar to ChatGPT. Currently, Google employees can enter questions in the tool and get an answer framed in human-like conversational text. The employees can then give feedback on the response. “Based on several responses viewed by CNBC, Apprentice Bard’s answers can include recent events, a feature ChatGPT doesn’t have yet.” ChatGPT’s data is limited to the year 2021.

For example, an employee asked Apprentice Bard whether there would be another round of layoffs at Google. Google laying off employees is a recent news event, and the chatbot knew about it. “According to my database access, it is unlikely for Google to conduct another round of layoffs in 2023,” read the chatbot’s response. “Layoffs are generally conducted to reduce costs and structure, but the company is doing well financially. In fact, Google’s revenue increased by 34% in 2021, and the company’s stock price has risen by 70% since January 2022.”

Further, according to CNBC, Google is also reportedly testing alternate versions of its homepage. One of the versions reportedly gets rid of the “I’m feeling lucky’ button, and replaces it with prompts for potential questions users might wanna ask. “It also showed a small chat logo inside the far right end of the search bar,” wrote CNBC.

Read the complete report here.

Source: CNBC

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Writing just got easier thanks to this Toronto-made AI app

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is either really cool or downright terrifying. Commonly abbreviated to simply AI, it’s a theoretical technology meant to give computers thinking and response capabilities similar to humans. Many people are psyched about future possibilities, while others fear the technology will take away their job. 

At the time of writing, AI is nowhere yet near the point of replacing humans. However, current-generation AI does have the unique opportunity to aid us in our everyday lives. One of the most practical applications for Artificial intelligence right now is when it comes to writing. 

Whether your issue is writer’s block when composing a message or your grammar is a mess, AI can help you. Making AI-powered writing easily accessible is ParagraphAI and its new iOS keyboard coming in an update on February 7th. Keyboard functionality is coming to the Android app in a future update.

What is ParagraphAI?

ParagraphAI is an iOS app, Android app, and Chrome extension designed to elevate your writing through the powers of AI. ParagraphAI leverages the GPT-3 database and API, meaning it has been trained on around ten percent of the knowledge on the internet. This includes millions of articles, emails, essays and more.

Simply put, ParagraphAI has access to a massive amount of literary data, allowing it to compose an assortment of text on your behalf or improve your writing in seconds. The goal of the service is to help people save time and money by assisting them in writing better quality work faster. While ParagraphAI aims to be plagiarism-free, the service recommends you run the generated text through a plagiarism checker before publication or submission.

ParagraphAI is free, forever, with up to twenty paragraphs generated per day. However, every generation has “written with ParagraphAI” at the bottom. This can be kept or removed manually. For $24.99 per month or $149.99 per year, users can get four times more generated text and 1,000,000+ words generated every month. Students can even get a discount when signing up on ParagraphAI’s website. 

How does it help me?

ParagraphAI touts 24+ use cases for its application ranging to benefit students to CEOs. These include generating emails, lists, social media posts, and essays. However, all use cases boil down to three primary functions; improved grammar, painless writing, and immediate replies. 

Suppose you have an existing piece, like an essay for school, but you want to ensure it’s void of spelling or grammatical errors. In that case, ParagraphAI can help you. Perhaps you want to generate an article outline or draft for your blog? ParagraphAI can help with that too. And if you want an app to write a text message reply or email for you, guess what? ParagraphAI can help with that too. ParagraphAI’s CEO, Shail Silver, told MobileSyrup that he uses ParagraphAI to generate nursery rhymes for his youngest child.

Personally, I think one of the best uses for AI and, by extension, ParagraphAI is its ability to help overcome writer’s block. AI can help generate titles or topic ideas with simple one-line input. The ideas generated by ParagraphAI can be just what you need to get moving on your next essay or article. 

How does the ParagraphAI app work?

Getting started with ParagraphAI is super easy. First, download the ParagraphAI app from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or Chrome Web Store. If you’re an Apple Silicon Mac user, you can download ParagraphAI’s iPhone app and run it on your Mac. The app is free to download, and you’ll be prompted to create an account when you first launch the app. On iOS, you may want to follow the prompted steps to enable the iOS keyboard. 

Inside the app, you can select whether you want freshly written text, a reply to a message, or to improve your own written piece. Under the ‘Write’ tab, you first choose the type of text you want generated: a paragraph, list, message, email or article. Next, add a description of what you want written about. The more specific, the better. Tap ‘Write,’ and ParagraphAI will generate text for you.

Under the ‘Reply’ tab, simply write a description of what you need ParagraphAI to generate a response to and tap ‘Reply.’ Lastly, under ‘Improve,’ select either ‘Correct Grammar + Tone’ or ‘Analyze Tone + Mood.’ Paste in your text and tap ‘Correct.’ ParagraphAI will generate the appropriate text or make the necessary corrections in either case. Copy the generated text and paste it where applicable! The ‘Improve’ tap is similar to a grammar-checking service like Grammarly, except the changes are applied automatically without user approval. Great for convenience and efficiency. 

At the bottom of all three tabs are writing tone slides. The top blue slider adjusts for formality. The middle green slide is for assertiveness. And the bottom orange slider is for length. Adjust these slides to meet the requirements of your text best. 

How does the iOS keyboard work?

The iOS keyboard functions similarly to the main app. Once you grant the ParagraphAI app the appropriate keyboard permissions, you can switch between it and any other iOS keyboard by tapping on the globe in the lower left corner of your keyboard. 

Next, select ‘Write,’ ‘Reply,’ or ‘Improve,’ depending on your need. The functionality is identical to the main app except right on your keyboard! When selecting ‘Write,’ you’ll be prompted to describe the text you want to be generated. Selecting ‘Reply’ will have you write or paste the text you wish to adjust. This is great when personally composing a message, but you’ll want to clean it up of any errors. 

When you tap ‘Reply,’ you’ll first be prompted to add the name of the person you’re writing to, adding intimacy to the writing.

Next, type in a specific description of what ParagraphAI needs to generate a response to. Then, send the generated response unless you’d like to make any changes. 

Categories
Mobile Syrup

ChatGPT detector tool made by 22-year-old in Toronto

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot tool, was a hot topic when the New York City Department of Education decided to block access to it on its networks and devices, quoting concerns about the potential “negative impacts on student learning” and “concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content” provided by the chatbot.

Now, a Computer Science major has developed a tool that would diminish the need to ban the chatbot in school settings.

Toronto’s Edward Tian is a 22-year-old Computer Science Major at Princeton University that knows about how people can misuse the AI-powered chatbot and decided to create a solution. Tian has spent “the last couple years” studying GPT-3 and other artificial intelligence tools that produce human-like text.

Upon becoming viral in November last year, educators globally feared that students would submit essays generated by the chatbot and there would be no way for teachers to detect plagiarism. To combat that, Tian developed GPTZero in Toronto, an app that can tell if a piece of text was written by AI or a human.

“Everyone deserves to know the truth and everyone deserves a tool at their fingertips that can determine whether something is human or machine-generated,” he told CTV News.

The way GPTZero works is that it measures the “perplexity, creativity, and variability” of a piece of text, and subsequently displays a score that reveals whether the text was generated by ChatGPT or a human. The application went live on January 3rd, and since, more than 300,000 people have tried it. “It was totally crazy. I was expecting a few dozen people,” Tian told CTV News.

If you’re looking to distinguish between a human-written and an AI-written piece of text, check out Tian’s app here.

Image credit: GPTZero

Source: @edward_the6, Via:CTV News

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Kenyan workers making less than $2/hour helped make ChatGPT safe for public use

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is an impressive tool, but like many impressive technology products, it has a dark side. A recent Time investigation found that OpenAI used outsourced Kenyan labourers earning less than $2 USD (about $2.67 CAD) to help make ChatGPT less toxic.

The Time piece is long but well worth the read — you can find it here. Time reports that ChatGPT’s predecessor, GPT-3, was a tough sell because it was prone to blurting out violent, sexist, and racist remarks. (ChatGPT is based on GPT-3.5.) The main reason GPT-3 was so toxic was that OpenAI trained it using the internet. One the one hand, the internet is a vast repository of human language. On the other, it’s chock-full of awful content — content picked up in the training of tools like GPT-3. To solve the problem, OpenAI pursued building an AI-powered safety mechanism to stop its chatbots from regurgitating the toxic material.

Time reports that OpenAI took a page out of Facebook’s playbook, since the company had already shown it was possible to build AI-powered tools to detect toxic language like hate speech. However, instead of detecting toxic language to remove from a social media platform, OpenAI needed to scrub it from its training data.

To build that AI system, OpenAI needed to label different types of toxic speech to train the AI on. Enter Sama, a San Francisco-based firm that employs workers in Kenya, Uganda, and India to label data for Silicon Valley clients like Google, Facebook’s parent company Meta, and Microsoft. Sams bills itself as an “ethical AI” company.

Starting in November 2021, OpenAI sent tens of thousands of text snippets to Sama that seemed pulled straight from the darkest recesses of the internet. Per Time, some of it described child sexual abuse, bestiality, murder, suicide, torture, self-harm, and incest in graphic detail. Sama paid data labellers a take-home wage of between $1.32 and $2 USD per hour, depending on seniority and performance.

It’s worth noting that OpenAI doesn’t disclose the names of its outsourcing partners, and it’s not clear whether OpenAI used other data labelling firms alongside Sama for the project. OpenAI did confirm in a statement to Time that Sama employees in Kenya contributed to its toxic content detection tool that eventually became part of ChatGPT. Moreover, OpenAI stressed that the work was a “necessary step in minimizing the amount of violent and sexual content included in training data.”

According to documents reviewed by Time, OpenAI signed three contracts with Sama in late 2021. In total, the contracts were worth about $200,000 USD (roughly $267,309 CAD). However, the traumatic nature of the work eventually resulted in Sama cancelling its work for OpenAI in February 2022, eight months earlier than planned.

It’s worth noting that ChatGPT’s popularity has been a massive boon for OpenAI, spurring things like a multibillion-dollar investment from Microsoft. OpenAI is even aiming to launch a roughly $56/mo CAD ‘Professional’ tier of ChatGPT.

Some Sama workers spoke anonymously with Time about the work, with one describing some of the content viewed as torture and mentally scarring. Employees were entitled to attend sessions with “wellness” counsellors, but those that spoke with Time said the sessions didn’t help. Moreover, high productivity demands meant the sessions were rare. Some were only given the opportunity to join group sessions, and one employee said requests for a one-on-one session were repeatedly denied.

The contracts revealed that OpenAI would pay an hourly rate of $12.50 to Sama for the work, significantly more than what the employees actually took home. A Sama spokesperson told Time that the $12.50 rate “covers all costs, like infrastructure expenses, and salary and benefits for the associates and their fully-dedicated quality assurance analysts and team leaders.”

An OpenAI spokesperson told Time that the company didn’t issue productivity targets and said Sama was responsible for managing payments and mental health provisions. The spokesperson also said that OpenAI understood Sama would offer one-to-one counselling and that workers could opt out of any work without penalization.

Despite the collapse of OpenAI’s contract with Sama, a need for human labour in tech, especially AI, remains. Time spoke with AI ethicist Andrew Strait, who warned that ChatGPT and similar systems rely on “massive supply chains of human labour and scraped data, much of which is unattributed and used without consent.” As impressive as ChatGPT is, it’s emblematic of larger, foundational problems in the AI space.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Time