Tucked away inside a WeWork assembly room in Decrease Manhattan, Edward Tian pulls up a Google Doc on his laptop computer titled “Secret Grasp Plan,” a draft outlining his startup’s progress technique. The 25-year-old co-founder and CEO of GPTZero faucets the trackpad and grins. “Eighty-three % is me. Seventeen % is my co-founder Alex,” Tian mentioned, nodding to the authorship breakdown his software program simply spit out.
The forensic authorship evaluation gives a glimpse into what GPTZero is changing into. The software that first went viral for serving to academics catch homework is now pivoting into the alternative facet of the sport: serving to customers write higher and extra responsibly with A.I. “We wish to make GPTZero the de-facto software for academics—writing professors, science professors, essay instructors—to assist college students discover ways to write and cite educational work,” Tian advised Observer.
“We’re not anti-A.I. We’re A.I.-forward,” Tian emphasised. That shift in technique comes as generative A.I. encroaches on each a part of life, typically resulting in unintended penalties. One MIT examine not too long ago discovered that college students who relied on A.I. to write down confirmed decrease mind exercise in areas linked to reminiscence and significant considering. Colleges throughout the U.S. are cracking down on A.I.-generated assignments. On-line, LinkedIn posts that name out A.I.-written content material for sounding stiff or soulless hold racking up views.
Past flagging A.I.-generated textual content, the platform now affords real-time recommendations on readability and construction, checks citations for accuracy, and helps academics work out who contributed what in group tasks. It’s much less about catching cheaters, based on Tian, and extra of a “pedagogical software” to hone writing and significant considering expertise. As generative A.I. turns into tougher to keep away from, GPTZero’s problem is to assist individuals work with the know-how in ways in which sharpen their considering—with out letting machines substitute it.
From school thesis to startup
Raised by software program engineers between Beijing and Toronto, Tian’s ardour for know-how and studying was instilled in him at a younger age. GPTZero started as Tian’s senior thesis at Princeton College, the place he majored in pc science and minored in journalism. After getting early entry to OpenAI’s language fashions throughout a Microsoft internship, his pursuits shifted. A month after ChatGPT launched in late 2022, Tian rapidly constructed GPTZero and tweeted it out. Inside hours, it went viral.
When GPTZero first launched, many doubted whether or not it may survive. Skeptics questioned the longevity of the corporate, writing off the launch as a mere “undertaking” over a critical enterprise enterprise. That spooked preliminary traders. However over time, the software has grown far past these early expectations. In 2024, customers scanned greater than 250 million paperwork, based on Tian. By mid-2025, that quantity had greater than doubled. Immediately, GPTZero generates $60 million in annual recurring income in paid subscription plans and partnerships.
The corporate has now grown to a 23-person crew between New York and Toronto. The Canadian workplace location was chosen, partially, due to its robust machine studying neighborhood and entry to high tier expertise from neighboring universities, Tian mentioned.
The software program maintains between 100,000 and 200,000 every day lively customers and has seen over one million every day customers throughout peak examination seasons, based on Tian. It’s not simply college students and academics utilizing the software. Entrepreneurs, grant reviewers and even hiring managers are additionally adopting the software to enhance their writing. “We’re nonetheless always being underestimated,” Tian mentioned.
Educators stay a key person base, they usually’re warming as much as utilizing GPTZero as extra than simply an A.I.-detection software. Earlier this 12 months, GPTZero launched a six-part certificates webinar collection referred to as “Educating Responsibly with A.I.,” drawing over 3,000 academics desirous to discover ways to thoughtfully combine A.I. into their lecture rooms. With a 97 % satisfaction fee, the webinars led to greater than 500 academics including GPTZero to their syllabi, instructing college students on the right way to use its instruments to enhance their writing and cite sources precisely, based on Tian.
Now, college students utilizing GPTZero’s Docs Chrome extension to obtain suggestions on their writing, resembling flagging obscure concepts or suggesting clearer phrasing. On the similar time, academics use options like typing sample evaluation to trace contributions in group work and a bibliography checking software to flag lacking or made-up citations.
The emphasis on A.I. as an educational software has resonated with some academics. Tian recounted a dialog with one instructor who mentioned they used to pay shut consideration to grammar when grading. Now, grammar isn’t their predominant concern as a result of grammatical errors truly could point out the scholars didn’t use A.I. With GPTZero, the instructor may concentrate on what actually issues: the standard of writing. “That’s a terrific equalizer,” Tian mentioned.
A belief dilemma
GPTZero’s enlargement comes at a second when companies and universities are nonetheless determining the right way to undertake A.I. Some are desirous to embrace it for the productiveness features; others are extra cautious, not sure of the place to arrange guardrails. That stress is particularly current in colleges, the place educators are navigating murky territory with out a lot steerage.
With out clear norms round accountable use, some college students could also be discouraged from experimenting with A.I. altogether. And regardless of GPTZero’s shift towards a extra constructive position, its roots in plagiarism detection raises issues that its adoption may reinforce a tradition of surveillance and distrust.
In response to those issues, Tian emphasizes that GPTZero is transferring away from a “plagiarism mentality” towards selling conscious A.I. utilization.
That philosophy additionally shapes the best way the crew works. Earlier than becoming a member of GPTZero, head of design Robert Nicolaides was hesitant to make use of A.I. in his inventive course of. Now, he’s much less skeptical. He makes use of chatbots for duties like transcribing person analysis and producing “dummy textual content” for mockups. Nevertheless, he finds A.I. much less helpful for brainstorming unique design concepts.
Experimenting with A.I. to see the place it helps and the place it falls quick is similar method many academics take, Nicolaides mentioned. “What we’re doing right here is about accountable A.I. use and serving to individuals enhance their writing—not do the work for them,” he advised Observer.
Full-stack engineer Midhun Dandamudi mentioned A.I. has “multiplied” his productiveness. Regardless that he’s conscious of the hurt of overreliance, he believes that A.I. is right here to remain, and customers should discover a strategy to embrace it in a important approach. “In case you construct the best instruments, you’ll be able to assist individuals use them responsibly,” Dandamudi advised Observer.
Wanting forward, GPTZero is growing options to floor credible sources, scale back hallucinated content material, and assist academics combine A.I. into lesson plans, mentioned Tian. Whereas writing stays the main focus, some customers are already asking for instruments to detect A.I.-generated code due to issues that the code could not work or be weak to assaults.
Accountable A.I. use will stay central to GPTZero’s design. However in terms of deciding how A.I. suits into the classroom, Tian says that’s in the end as much as academics to resolve. GPTZero’s position, as he sees it, is to present them what they want whereas encouraging them to assume broadly about the right way to use the know-how in ways in which assist—with out inflicting hurt.
“We’re in a reasonably distinctive place to try this,” Tian mentioned.
