Generative AI has been a trending topic since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
But even before it became widely popular, the impact of generative AI in the content creation field was well known. While the technology has a multitude of benefits, it poses a number of risks, such as false information and plagiarism for both content creators and consumers. Originality.AI, a technology company based in Collingwood, is helping to mitigate such risks by offering an AI detection tool that identifies if content is AI-generated. The company’s AI detector can accurately detect content that has been sourced from ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Gemini Pro, Claude 3, Llama 3 and other AI writing tools.
Founded by Jonathan Gillham, Originality.AI was launched a week before ChatGPT was unveiled. When asked about the inspiration behind Originality.AI, Gillham cites the content marketing business he previously founded. He recalls that there were times his team would find out that the articles they purchased were generated by AI rather than being written by humans. That experience turned into a catalyst for founding Originality.AI, which provides a complete toolset that helps website owners, content marketers and writers publish with integrity. The company currently has a staff of 20 people who are based locally and internationally.
Originality.AI’s internally built AI uses supervised learning with multiple models to predict if the content is AI-generated or human-generated. The AI has been given vast amounts of both types of content, and it has been trained to distinguish between the two. After each training session, Originality.AI evaluates the effectiveness of its new model by giving it a large test data set and based on the results, it makes adjustments for improvement.
Originality.AI tools can provide benefits for various industries. For instance, platforms that provide reviews for their users can benefit greatly from the AI detection tools, as human-generated reviews of goods and services are typically more reliable than AI-generated ones. Gillham makes a point of noting that the company does not recommend its services to teachers and students. This is because there is a low rate of false positives (around two percent) in which the detector tool can potentially misidentify human-generated content as AI-generated. Since the potential consequences of such an inaccuracy on a big scale can be substantial, Originality.AI does not consider it an enforceable level of detection.
While AI tools can bring a host of benefits, Gillham states that knowing which tools to use and when to use it is key to efficiency. Using generative AI in an area in which one has prior knowledge is helpful because the AI output can then be evaluated for accuracy.
A diverse offering of services
Originality.AI offers pay-as-you-go, pro and enterprise plans targeted at different needs. From plagiarism checking to fact-checking to readability scores, Originality.AI provides a range of services that are designed for various organizations and professionals. For example, by using Originality.AI tools, content marketing agencies can prove to their clients that their content is original. Beyond that, organizations can also use the tools to check for any plagiarism or inaccuracy in facts, which are known for being time-consuming to do manually. Originality.AI tools can do the same in a much shorter time. For writers and content creators, the company offers a readability checker, which can help make the writing clearer and more engaging. Originality.AI also offers a free Google Chrome extension, which can help prove that an article was written by a human by allowing clients to visualize the creation process.
Based on independent tests and the company’s own tests, Originality.AI has been consistently recognized for its high accuracy score. One of the reasons for this superiority to other AI detection tools is that the AI algorithms at Originality.AI use natural language processing techniques, which are known to require more computing power. The company’s cutting-edge AI detection capabilities break down language barriers by providing results across 15 languages, including Spanish, Italian and Vietnamese.
Why Collingwood?
Having grown up in Duntroon, Gillham is a local to the area. After completing his secondary education at Collingwood Collegiate Institute and post-secondary education at McMaster University, Gillham lived in Sarnia for seven years, doing an engineering and project management job. Gillham notes that he and his wife, who is also from the area, knew that they wanted to get back to Collingwood. From the ski hills to the hiking trails to the soccer fields, Collingwood’s unique location on the southern shore of Georgian Bay makes it an ideal location to raise his children. “When I initially moved back to the area, I thought I was making a trade-off for my family, but I was not. The Town offers many advantages of its own. It’s big enough that there is a community of entrepreneurs, but it is small enough that you can quickly get done what you want to do,” says Gillham.
Gillham is an active member of Collingwood’s entrepreneurial community. Originality.AI was part of the Georgian Bay (GB) Accelerator program, which was established in 2021 to advance high-growth companies in the Georgian Bay area by providing ideas, momentum, and a community. In partnership with the GB Accelerator, Gillham gives talks on how businesses can leverage AI as a growth tool. “The GB Accelerator program is such a supportive ecosystem for businesses, and for Originality.AI, it was a great experience to be a part of. I am happy to pay it forward in any way that I can,” says Gillham.
Looking to the future
As generative AI makes its way into various sectors, the need to distinguish between human-generated and AI-generated content becomes ever more pronounced. Since its founding, Originality.AI has established itself as a key player in an ecosystem of companies that seek to mitigate the downsides of generative AI. “We are as well positioned as any company in the world to be in this space, and we are looking forward to growing and continuously improving the tools we offer,” says Gillham.
Visit Originality.AI to learn more about the company and access the exciting range of tools they offer.
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Photo Credits: Dave West Photography