Can Residency Programs Detect Artificial Intelligence Use in Personal Statements?

To evaluate widely used artificial intelligence (AI) detectors' ability to identify ChatGPT's (OpenAI, San Francisco, CA, USA) use in personal statements submitted as part of the residency program application.

This qualitative analysis was performed to evaluate the ability of three different AI detectors to detect the use of AI in personal statements submitted as part of residency applications for obstetrics and gynecology. A total of 25 writings were selected and analyzed by GPTZero (Princeton, NJ, USA), Undetectable AI (Sheridan, WY, USA), and Winston AI (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).

In total, 25 separate writing samples of approximately 700 words were entered into three different AI detectors. AI-generated works had high rates of AI-detection, while classic literature samples had low rates of detection. Human-written personal statements before and after the availability of ChatGPT technology results were mixed, with results ranging from 64-100% and 3-100% of content appearing to be AI, respectively.

AI-chatbots have been shown to produce writing that may be indistinguishable from human work and may already be commonly used to create personal statements. It is unclear who is utilizing ChatGPT in their writing, and residency programs everywhere will seek a reliable way to detect unethical usage. This study shows that available AI detectors may be able to detect AI use in applicants' personal statements, but the use of invalidated tools may harm honest applicants.

Residency programs may be able to detect AI use in personal statements by utilizing AI-detection tools. Clear guidelines regarding the appropriate use of AI and authorship must be developed in order to maintain the integrity of student submissions.