Grammarly has unveiled a new tool known as Grammarly Authorship, aimed at tracking the origins of written content and preventing unauthorised use of AI technology, as well as more traditional forms of plagiarism. This feature is available through the free Grammarly plugin for Google Docs and can also be accessed via Grammarly for Chrome and Microsoft Edge, with plans for its future incorporation into additional Grammarly platforms.
Grammarly Authorship sets itself apart from other AI detection tools by being intended for use by the writer themselves, rather than by educators assessing student work after submission. The tool acts as an advanced version of Google Doc’s "version history," tracking the duration users spend on a document and how the content comes into being, whether through typing or copy-pasting activities.
The feature can sometimes identify the sources of copied text and flags content it suspects as AI-generated. It also records the usage of Grammarly's standard spellcheck, and compiles this data into a shareable report. This report details the time taken to complete the writing piece and whether it was worked on over multiple sessions.
Over the span of a week, the tool was used in various writing projects, demonstrating its potential uses for both educators and students. It provides a means to verify whether parts of a student’s work require proper citations, or if paraphrasing was insufficient.
Despite its capabilities, Grammarly Authorship is not without limitations. The AI detection component faces the same ethical issues as similar tools in the market, primarily the risk of inaccurately accusing students of AI use. While the tool can flag text as copied or AI-generated, a resourceful student could circumvent the tool by manually typing AI-generated content, thereby misleading the Authorship report.
Despite reservations, the tool could reduce AI-generated submissions by making it more cumbersome to type out AI responses as opposed to simply copying and pasting them. However, the introduction of such a tool raises concerns about privacy and the intrusion into personal writing habits, particularly as writing is a personal endeavour with varied preferences and methods.
Within educational settings, there might be potential for Grammarly Authorship as a voluntary plagiarism checker for students to self-assess their work. It can also provide insights into the amount of time dedicated to writing tasks, possibly guiding students on how to allocate time more effectively for future assignments. Nonetheless, the sharing of Authorship reports between students and educators is discouraged, preserving the tool's function as a personal aid rather than a compulsory measure.
For personal use, Grammarly Authorship is seen as a valuable asset for educators looking to track time spent on writing. This move by Grammarly represents a step towards addressing the complexities of AI use in writing assignments, though it does not fully resolve ongoing concerns surrounding AI submissions in academic contexts.
Source: Noah Wire Services