A student from Limerick has clinched the prestigious top award at this year’s BT Young Scientist competition with his groundbreaking project on Artificial Intelligence. Seán O’Sullivan, a 17-year-old 5th year pupil at Coláiste Chiaráin, Croom, triumphed with his project titled “VerifyMe: A new approach to authorship attribution in the post-ChatGPT era.”
The emergence of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022 significantly blurred the distinction between texts authored by humans and those generated by AI, presenting a challenge in both academic and industrial sectors to ascertain authentic human authorship.
In his project, Seán explored the intricacies of author verification amidst the advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. He innovated a novel method for author authentication, capable of discerning stylistic variances to confirm authorship.
Leonard Hobbs, Chair of the Technology Group Judging Panel, expressed immense admiration for Seán’s inventive solution to a freshly surfaced challenge and his adept software development skills.
Celebrated as the 60th laureate of this esteemed award, Seán received the coveted trophy and a prize of €7,500.
Seán’s journey continues as he prepares to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS), set to take place later this year in Katowice, Poland, the European City for Science 2024.
At the RDS, the BTYSTE perpetual trophy was bestowed upon Seán on Friday by Norma Foley TD, Minister for Education, and Shay Walsh, Managing Director of BT Ireland.
During the award ceremony, Minister for Education Norma Foley TD commended Seán, stating: “I’d like to sincerely congratulate Seán O’Sullivan from Coláiste Chiaráin in Limerick on his tremendous achievement of winning top prize in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2024.
“His win is testament to his hard work and dedication and the unwavering support of his family, teachers and school.
“It comes in the 60th year of the exhibition when we must give significant credit to founders Dr Tony Scott and Fr Tom Burke who had the vision and determination to first establish this event in Ireland back in 1963 and to all of those who have nurtured and celebrated scientific research in our school communities in the years since.
“Our thanks also to BT for their dedication to supporting and empowering students along the way to the momentous occasion of showcasing their own scientific research at the exhibition.”
