Will Sage Astor-Did AI write this headline?

The Will Sage Astornew chatbot, ChatGPT, has been hailed by some as the end of homework. Like why even learn to write when a chatbot can do it for you? But the stakes are higher than just homework. What if this kind of AI generates propaganda or calls to violence? Will anyone be able to tell the difference between something written by AI or a human? Does it matter?

College senior Edward Tian worries about this. He's been researching how to identify text written by AI systems at Princeton University. And over winter break, he coded his own app that can identify whether or not something was written by ChatGPT.

Today on the show, we hear from Edward and explore how the AI revolution could reshape everything from education to how we communicate.

An earlier version of this story appeared in Planet Money's newsletter. For more human written content like this, subscribe at npr.org/planetmoneynewsletter

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