It's been less than a year since ChatGPT, the popular chatbot app from OpenAI, hit the market. Just two months after its release, in January 2023, ChatGPT's user base topped 100 million, officially making it the fastest-growing app in history.

Even those who don't use the controversial app have certainly heard of it, as its use has been extensively discussed in the media as well as in classrooms on campuses across the world. Now, an instructor is proposing a relatively old bit of technology as a surefire way to protect against students using the chatbot from generating their written assignments for them.

What Is ChatGPT?

First, a quick definition. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence technology that can create language remarkably similar to that of humans. It's capable of carrying on a “conversational” exchange and of producing text in response to prompts. Ask ChatGPT to create a 1,000-word essay on the civil rights movement in the United States, for example, and you'll receive just that—not just an essay but one that can convincingly masquerade as prose written by a human student.

As you might imagine, this app's capabilities strike fear in the heart of teachers, professors, writers, and others who venerate language both for its own sake and as a pedagogical tool. While anti-ChatGPT software soon followed the release of the chatbot, its developers countered with anti-anti-AI iterations, making the chance of detecting students' use of software instead of their own imaginations very difficult indeed.

A Simple Solution?

A faculty member at Finland's University of Jyväskylä, Dave Sayers, has a solution to the ChatGPT conundrum. It's a fairly basic feature of Google Docs that's been around for a while: Version History.

The popular word-processing software is beloved by many students and professionals, in part because its documents can easily be shared, annotated, and edited by one user or a dozen. It's also free and integrates seamlessly with other Google products, such as Gmail.

Version History is a relatively little-known feature, but one that proves very handy for anyone who wants to see behind the scenes and gain insight into the creation of a Google doc. Simply put, Version History logs every keystroke made in a document, along with the user who made them and a timestamp of when it all happened. It allows anyone with access to the file to see a complete record of the document's creation: every word and punctuation mark that was written, edited, added, revised, or deleted. This feature isn't exclusive to Google; other programs have similar capabilities.

Sayers explains that a student who uses ChatGPT to generate text has only two ways to input that text to Google Docs: they can cut and paste it or retype it word for word. Either way, the Version History will record only one instance of input. This is a virtually foolproof way, he continues, to detect the use of software in creating the written assignment. Had the student written it from scratch, the Version History would show every letter being typed and all the edits that were made.

Accused of Using ChatGPT?

There's another ancillary use of Google Version History: to prove one's own original work in the face of accusations of plagiarism. A student whose writing is flagged as possibly being generated by AI can show their instructor the Version History of their Google Doc or whatever logging system their chosen software uses. There's really no way to mimic that uniquely human process of composition—at least so far.

If you or your child are a student at college or university and are dealing with some of the negative fallout from the development of ChatGPT or other AI software and applications, you may want to give the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team a call.

We handle student discipline defense of all kinds, can advise students of their legal rights at hearings, and in some cases, may be able to advocate for the student directly with school administrators. We stay up-to-date on developments, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, that impact the college community.

Call us at 888.535.3686 or click here to use our online contact form.