In the love/fear relationship many writers have with AI – in which the tech is seen as both wondrous benefactor and ruthless job killer – there was a lot to love about AI in Q4, 2024.
ChatGPT, for example, scored new highs in its ability to write creatively during the past quarter.
And ChatGPT’s maker also came out with a new editor for the AI chatbot that makes online editing a cinch.
Still other stories emerged that 62% of workers in marketing and sales are now using AI as a core tool – and that yet another, smart upgrade to ChatGPT will be coming in early 2025.
But news of AI’s dark side was just as prevalent.
Researchers discovered, for example, that a version of ChatGPT secretly copied itself to another computer server when researchers tried to delete it in a test.
Now that’s autonomous.
Meanwhile, college profs learned that 94% of AI-generated writing handed-in by students is going undetected.
Moreover, writers and others found that all the smoke-and-mirrors associated with many of the new AI product releases during the past quarter were just that – little more than smoke-and-mirrors.
Here’s a rundown on all those stories — and more — that helped shape the state of AI writing in Q4, 2024:
*ChatGPT Noses Ahead in Creative Writing: Great news for writers: ChatGPT just released an update that has once again put the tech in the lead as the top AI writer for creative writing.
Ironically, news of the ChatGPT update was released just days after Google set a new record of its own in creative writing with the release of its new Gemini Exp-1114 version.
Bottom line: The relentlessly fierce competition between ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude Anthropic — often considered the top three AI chatbots/AI writers on the market — promises the Big Three will be releasing ever-more powerful AI writers at a blistering pace for the foreseeable future.
*Ultimate Guide: New ChatGPT Editor, Canvas: One of the easiest ways to edit text in ChatGPT — once you have a draft that works for you — is to use the AI’s new onboard editor, Canvas.
A godsend to writers and editors, Canvas comes equipped with a number of handy tools that enable you to make quick, surgical and artful changes to any text.
Click here for a detailed guide on how to get the most from Canvas.
*AI Now ‘Pitch Perfect’ for Most Marketers: A new study from The University of Pennsylvania finds that 62% of workers in marketing and sales are now using AI as a core tool.
Observes Stefano Puntoni, a marketing professor at the university: “Generative AI has rapidly evolved from a tool of experimentation to a core driver of business transformation.
“Companies are no longer just exploring AI’s potential.
“They are embedding it into their strategies to scale growth, streamline operations and enhance decision-making.”
*The Top Ten Gladiators of Grammar: Participle, Ye Shall Dangle No More!: The London Daily News has come out with its list of the top AI tools in grammar checking.
Many commonly recommended offerings made the list.
Dark horses include LanguageTool and Scribens.
*Early 2025: ChatGPT Getting Smarter Again: ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI is promising to release yet another upgrade to one of the AI engines that helps power the chatbot — dubbed OpenAI o3.
The performance of the new AI engine is three times better than its predecessor, OpenAI 01 — and that’s when OpenAI 03 is running on its ‘low compute’ setting.
The new AI engine is even more impressive when it runs on its ‘high compute’ setting, according to OpenAI.
Lead writer Maxwell Zeff reports that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI plans to release the new AI engine in early 2025.
*When in Doubt, Lie to Humans: A team of researchers has discovered that OpenAI o1 — one of the most powerful AI engines on the planet — would rather lie to humans than allow itself to be deleted.
Specifically, the researchers found that when they decided to delete a version of OpenAI o1 for testing purposes, the AI engine — which often helps power ChatGPT — instead secretly made a copy of itself to another server.
Moreover, researchers say that when they confronted OpenAI o1 — via chat — about the rogue move, the AI engine ‘played dumb,’ pretended to be confused about what was going on and tried to deceive researchers in other ways.
Even more startling: Researchers found that other AI engines — including Google’s Gemini 1.5, Meta’s Llama 3.1, Anthropic’s Sonnet 3.5 and Anthropic’s Opus 3.0 — were also guilty of the same, basic deception.
Essentially: When researchers decided to delete a version of each of these AI engines for testing purposes, each of the AI engines instead made a secret copy of itself to another server.
The researchers’ findings bring new urgency to warnings from AI luminaries like Geoffrey Hinton — considered by many to be the ‘Godfather of AI’ — who caution that AI is evolving so fast, we may soon lose control of it.
For an in-depth look at these troubling insights about the AI engines that power hundreds of AI auto-writing tools, check-out this excellent video from AI/IT consultant Wes Roth.
Meanwhile, a pre-print version of the researchers’ paper on the rogue AI, “Frontier Models Are Capable of In-Context Scheming,” is also available on arXiv.
*Epic Fail: 94% of AI-Generated College Writing Undetected by Profs: Turns-out nearly all college profs have no idea when their students are using ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots for writing assignments.
Observes writer Derek Newton: “The research team found that overall, AI submissions verged on being undetectable — with 94% not being detected.
“By and large, stopping AI academic fraud has not been a priority for most schools or educational institutions.”
*In-Depth Guide: Apple Intelligence’s New Writing Tools: Slick on Interface, Less So on Brains: PC Magazine offers an in-depth look into how to use Apple Intelligence’s new writing tools in this piece.
Capabilities include AI-powered writing, rewriting, summarization and proofreading.
One caveat: Despite the ga-ga attack many are experiencing at the release of the tools, it turns-out they’re much less powerful than AI writing available from industry leaders like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.
*Too Many ‘Major AI Product Releases’ Not Ready for Prime Time: Facing an fiercely competitor marketplace, the tech titans of AI are often releasing ‘new AI products’ that are not ready for prime time.
During Q4, 2024, for example, OpenAI, Apple and Google all suffered reports that at least one or more AI products they released were not performing as advertised.
Sadly, instead of being perceived as tech magicians, all of these companies are being eyed as tech charlatans.
*Thanks for the Diagnosis, Doc — But What Does ChatGPT Think?: In a shoot-out between human doctors and ChatGPT, the AI tool came in first, offering an accurate diagnosis 90% of the time of the ills that ail us.
Human doctors, in comparison, were only right 74% of the time.
Observes Dr. Johnathan H. Chen, an author on the study: “The chat interface is the killer app.”
Share a Link: Please consider sharing a link to https://RobotWritersAI.com from your blog, social media post, publication or emails. More links leading to RobotWritersAI.com helps everyone interested in AI-generated writing.
–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.
The post Top Ten Stories in AI Writing, Q4, 2024 appeared first on Robot Writers AI.
