Sapling, also known as Sapling Intelligence, is renowned particularly for its AI detection capabilities. The AI detector within Sapling is trained to flag texts suspected of being written by AI.
Despite being regarded as a premier AI detector, doubts persist regarding its reliability, with some online discussions suggesting it may not be reliable at all.
An investigation into Sapling's performance is necessary to determine its trustworthiness as a platform for detecting AI. Thus, let's delve into this Sapling review to explore its capabilities.
TL;DR
Sapling provides users with various ways to detect AI, ranging from in-browser options to downloadable extensions and access through an API. Upon submission, it provides a likelihood percentage of AI generation.
While Sapling claims to catch more than 97% of AI-generated texts with a less than 3% false positive rate, our tests found Sapling to be far less accurate.
Pros
- Free version with no signup required
- Has been trained on the latest AI models
- Shows the likelihood of AI in each sentence
Cons
- Text length is limited
- The rate of false positives is too high
- The extension is only available for Chrome users
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Overview of Sapling
Founded in 2019 by Ziang Xie and headquartered in San Francisco, Sapling offers an array of services, including an AI detector capable of discerning content produced by various AI models.
Similar to other tools of its kind, Sapling has a simple interface featuring an input box for text input or pasting. Once submitted, the tool promptly undertakes content analysis, pinpointing sections potentially generated by AI.
Despite its touted capabilities, Sapling's performance isn't infallible. Some users shared their experiences of encountering challenges with Sapling's false positives, raising questions about its reliability.
Features of Sapling and How It Works
Sapling has gained popularity among both individuals and businesses due to its speed and user-friendly interface. Here are its main features:
Latest AI Model Detection
Sapling excels in detecting AI content, even when generated by the most recent language models like GPT-4, showcasing its proficiency in analyzing complex writing.
Highlighted Texts
After analyzing the input text, Sapling highlights the portion of the content and the individual sentences that it believes to be AI-generated. Various color shades are used to show the likelihood of particular sections being machine-written.
Percentage Score
Sapling presents AI detection results in an easily understandable format. A simple bar below the input text indicates the likelihood of the text being "Fake," ranging from 0 to 100%.
Chrome Extension
Users can install the AI Content Detector for ChatGPT extension developed by Sapling.ai to check for AI-generated content across the web. The extension also allows you to edit any analyzed text and recheck your work.
Free Version
Sapling offers a free version of its AI detector that accepts up to 2,000 characters, or approximately 400 to 500 tokens. To paste texts up to 50,000 characters (roughly 10,000 to 12,500 tokens), users must upgrade to the Pro or Enterprise subscription.
Per-Sentence AI Detection
Unlike other AI detectors that check entire texts for AI patterns, Sapling also offers per-sentence AI detection. The bottom section of the tool targets individual sentences that may be AI-generated due to their low perplexity levels.
Reliability of Sapling Tested
Does Sapling hold up under scrutiny, or does it fall short, echoing concerns raised in prior Reddit discussions? To test Sapling’s capabilities, we conducted several tests.
Test Preparation
Our examination commenced by creating both AI-generated and human-written content.
ChatGPT Text
We started by generating a short paragraph about a general topic with ChatGPT:
Gemini Text
We then entered the same prompt into Gemini to generate another AI text.
Human-Written Text
Subsequently, we manually wrote a piece on the same subject without the use of AI.
To ensure precision, we wrote a second human-written piece.
Is Sapling AI Detection Accurate?
With all four of the texts prepared, we began putting each one through Sapling’s AI detector. Here are the results:
ChatGPT Content Against Sapling
Sapling accurately identified the ChatGPT text as 100% AI-written. The overall text was highlighted in its entirety and all individual sentences were highlighted except for two.
Gemini Content Against Sapling
Once again, Sapling was correct in identifying AI in 100% of the text created using Gemini. The overall text was highlighted in its entirety and all, but two sentences were highlighted in the per-sentence AI detection section.
Human-Written Content #1 Against Sapling
While Sapling was correct in finding the presence of AI in writings created by ChatGPT and Gemini, it was inaccurate in finding our human-written text to be 99.9% AI. It highlighted the text in its entirety, as well as all individual sentences except for one.
Human-Written Content #2 Against Sapling
Once again, Sapling failed to determine that our second manually written piece was human-generated. The tool found the text to be 100% fake. The entirety of the text was highlighted and all, but only one sentence was highlighted among the individual sentences.
Sapling AI Detection Testing Result
In summary, Sapling was accurate in two of the four tests. Below is a table displaying the outcomes of each test:
- ChatGPT Text
- 100% AI
- Accurate
- Gemini Text
- 100% AI
- Accurate
- Human-Written Text #1
- 99.9% AI
- Unreliable
- Human-Written Text #2
- 100% AI
- Unreliable
The results of our tests using the Sapling AI detector were mixed. Although the tool was able to accurately detect AI in both the ChatGPT and Gemini tests, it proved unreliable in identifying both human-written pieces as AI.
Pricing of Sapling
Sapling offers a free version that allows users to check shorter pieces of content for AI. With this version, users can check an unlimited number of texts up to 2,000 characters each. For longer texts, the text needs to be broken up into smaller sections.
For those who want to process more than 2,000 characters at once, a paid subscription is needed. Both Pro and Enterprise subscriptions allow users to check up to 50,000 characters.
The Pro plan is $25/month or $12/month charged annually and a free trial is available. There is currently no pricing information for the Enterprise plan and interested users are asked to contact Sapling directly for pricing. Longer texts are also available using an API with metered pricing.
Overall, Sapling is an affordable way to detect AI from short texts. However, it can be costly for users who want to check lengthier pieces.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Sapling is an easy-to-use and convenient AI detection tool. However, due to its unreliable results, it should be used with caution.
To ensure that your content won’t get flagged, play it safe and run it through an AI detection remover like HIX Bypass.
