This week’s news that Google Workspace will have new artificial intelligence tools added to it throughout the year was not unexpected. It was another sign that if you haven’t being paying attention to the development of AI tools this year, you should start paying attention to them. Even if your school tries to ban or block AI tools, students will figure out a way to use them outside of school if not in your school. With that out of the way, here’s a round-up of some the AI tools that I’ve written and or made videos about in recent months.
A Short Overview of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that will create documents for you based on some minimal input from you. For example, I simply typed into ChatGPT “Ten Canva Features for Students” and got this article. ChatGPT can also be used to create poems like this one about the sunglasses worn by Geraint Thomas.
With a little tweaking of what you put into ChatGPT you can create longer articles than the one that I mentioned above. A simple, “tell me more” or “what about X” can generate more material from ChatGPT.
Video – A Short Overview of ChatGPT
Magic Write
Magic Write is the artificial intelligence tool built into Canva Docs. Magic Write works in a manner that is quite similar to ChatGPT. To use Magic Write you simply select it from the insert menu in Canva Docs. Once Magic Write is opened you then enter a short prompt like “green screen video tips” and Magic Write generates a short list or paragraph for you (formatting depends on the prompt). You can then insert that writing into your document as it was written or you can edit it before including it in your document. Watch this short video to see how Magic Write in Canva works.
Video – How to Use Artificial Intelligence in Canva Documents
Turn Writing Into Videos
To create a video with Lumen5 you can enter the URL of your published work or submit the text of an article you’ve written. Lumen5 will then select highlights from your writing to feature in a video. The video will always begin with the title of your article. From there it will use any subheadings or section headings that you have in your article to create sections of your video. If you don’t have subheadings or section headings in your article, Lumen5 will attempt to pull the keywords or phrases from each paragraph. Watch my demo below to see how easy it is to use Lumen5.
Concept Maps Created by AI
Detecting Writing Created by AI
Almost as quickly as new AI writing tools emerge, new tools to detect writing created by AI are emerging. I’ve tried three of them so far. All three are demonstrated in this short video. Watch the video as embedded below or skip down to read about the tools featured in the video.
AI Writing Check is a free tool created by the collaborative efforts of the non-profits Quill.org and CommonLit. AI Writing Check is a tool that was created to help teachers try to recognize writing created through the use of artificial intelligence. To use AI Writing Check you simply have to copy a passage of text of 100 or more words and paste it into AI Writing Check. The tool will then tell you the likelihood that the writing has or has not been created by artificial intelligence. That’s all there is to it. AI Writing Check isn’t foolproof and as is pointed out on the site, students can still develop ways to get around tools designed to detect AI-generated writing. It’s also worth noting that it can’t handle more than 400 words at a time.
Crossplag AI Content Detector is a free tool that you can use to try to determine whether or not an AI tool was used to generate a passage of text. Like other AI detection tools, Crossplag AI Content Detector is easy to use. To use it you simply paste a block of text into the content detector and it will give a rating of likelihood that AI was used to create that text. Watch my short video below to see how it works.
