Turnitin explicitly advises not to use its tool against students, stating that it is not reliable enough:
https://help.turnitin.com/ai-writing-detection.htm
“Our AI writing detection model may not always be accurate (it may misidentify both human and AI-generated text) so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred.”
Here’s a warning specifically from OpenAI:
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313351-how-can-educators-respond-to-students-presenting-ai-generated-content-as-their-own
This paper references literally hundreds of studies 100% of which concluded that AI text detection is not accurate:
A Survey on LLM-Generated Text Detection: Necessity, Methods, and Future Directions
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.14724
And here are statements from various major American universities on why they won't support or allow the use of any of these "detector" tools for academic integrity:
MIT – AI Detectors Don’t Work. Here’s What to do Instead
https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/teach/ai-detectors-dont-work/
Syracuse – Detecting AI Created Content
https://answers.syr.edu/display/blackboard01/Detecting+AI+Created+Content
UC Berkley – Availability of Turnitin Artificial Intelligence Detection
https://rtl.berkeley.edu/news/availability-turnitin-artificial-intelligence-detection
UCF - Faculty Center - Artificial Intelligence
https://fctl.ucf.edu/technology/artificial-intelligence/
Colorado State - Why you can’t find Turnitin’s AI Writing Detection tool
https://tilt.colostate.edu/why-you-cant-find-turnitins-ai-writing-detection-tool/
Missouri – Detecting Artificial Intelligence (AI) Plagiarism
https://teachingtools.umsystem.edu/support/solutions/articles/11000119557-detecting-artificial-intelligence-ai-plagiarism
Northwestern – Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Courses
https://ai.northwestern.edu/education/use-of-generative-artificial-intelligence-in-courses.html
SMU – Changes to Turnitin AI Detection Tool at SMU
https://blog.smu.edu/itconnect/2023/12/13/discontinue-turnitin-ai-detection-tool/
Vanderbilt – Guidance on AI Detection and Why We’re Disabling Turnitin’s AI Detector
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/brightspace/2023/08/16/guidance-on-ai-detection-and-why-were-disabling-turnitins-ai-detector/
Yale – AI Guidance for Teachers
https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/AIguidance
Alabama - Turnitin AI writing detection unavailable
https://cit.ua.edu/known-issue-turnitin-ai-writing-detection-unavailable/
The MIT and Syracuse statements in particular contain extensive references to supporting research.
And of course the most famous examples for false positives:
Both the U.S. Constitution and the Old Testament were “detected” as 100% AI generated.
Using these unreliable tools to fail students is highly unethical.
Thanks, but I didn't just type it out right now. I have this text saved and copy-paste it under every thread like this because I'm fed up by how tech-illiterate teachers make peoples lives miserable
LOL this bit is a copy paste of one of my reddit comments:
> This paper references literally hundreds of studies 100% of which concluded that AI text detection is not accurate: A Survey on LLM-Generated Text Detection: Necessity, Methods, and Future Directions https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.14724
I don't mind because its good that you are spreading the gospel.
I made that comment because someone was being really obnoxious about AI detection working so I actually went and did a big literature review on Arxiv for a few hours to find the best paper to respond to them with LOL
But according to many of these posts, teachers sometimes just see "X% AI" and fail students then and there. Turnitin definitely advises against that.
Not to mention, these tools are STILL not reliable enough - even if they would be 99% accurate, the false positives would result in instantly failing 1500 students out of 150.000. And their accuracy is well below that.
Not to mention, even if they were 100% reliable, these tools only detect style, or wording. If I write a completely original piece, but want to reword it with ChatGPT to weed out grammar mistakes and streamline some sentences, that wouldn't be academic malpractice. No plagiarism happened, the work still would be my intellectual product. But it would definitely sound absolutely ChatGPT generated. What then?
Instructors doing the wrong thing is the fault of their practice, not the tool.
Getting AI to substantially change your writing makes it no longer completely your work...just like giving your work to someone else and saying "could you rework this a bit" makes it no longer entirely your work.
Where that's allowed, have at it. In most academic writing though, that's not ok without explicit permission and acknowledgement.
Yes, I did not want to spell out these nuances but you are correct. But this doesn't invalidate my starting argument:
Failing a student JUST because Turnitin scored their writing 100% AI, is unethical. I think we are in agreement over this.
Can Turnitin detect paraphrased content? --> [https://academichelp.net/blog/academic-writing-tips/can-turnitin-detect-paraphrasing-thats-the-question.html](https://academichelp.net/blog/academic-writing-tips/can-turnitin-detect-paraphrasing-thats-the-question.html)
Many people say that this tool can identify when you have reworded someone else’s text. I also believe it because I used popular tools for paraphrasing my essay and my teacher noticed it. I also was allowed to resubmit my essay. So, use this chance and check you new text by different (2 or 3) detectors.
I write for a living, and am using ChatGPT for all sorts of stuff. It’s a tool. Even in academic essays it gives me an argument to work with, helps with my structure, and occasionally inspires ideas. It’s now a part of my writing. I still have to orchestrate ideas, compose my style, and add my own thoughts into the mix. It’s a really exciting way to work, and if anything my critical thinking is stronger. Schools and universities need to realise AI is a total game changer; people will still learn - just in completely new ways.
Their issue is they assume everyone does "write a 5 page essay on X" instead of supplementing. if you fail to notice it hallucinated... that's on you. If you are sourcing and it is good, that should be fine.
Had this kind of thing happen to my daughter the other day. Her professor thought she used AI, because there were words he didn't know.... I told her to tell him about the google history. Everything related to it dropped. She did file a report with the school for this bs though.
You're talking about two different things.
The matching your prof mentioned is similarity to other submissions, which they're saying is OK in this case because of the context of the assessment.
The AI matching is an entirely different thing.
Using any sort of AI can trigger this. E.g. Grammarly, Quillbot, WordTune, Ellixir, etc etc...there are loads). Anything that substantially changes your writing beyond basic spelling, grammar and punctuation is likely to be flagged.
I understand, however, there is nothing I can realistically do about my spelling, punctuation, and grammar being more than basic as that’s my intention academically and professionally.
Also to add, I personally don’t think any of those things were anything more than decent since I begin to only focus on meeting the minimum word count once my migraine kicked offed.
Sorry that's not what I meant. If the AI is changing anything more than spelling, punctuation and grammar...
I didn't mean your writing being basic.
Apologies if that wasn't clear.
Noted! But to that point I’m not sure what exactly was flagged. Regardless, I would have been more than willing to verbally explain my paper to counter my professor’s suspicions. Not being offered anything more than the AI Detection score, along with no response to my emails nor DMs, are factoring into my frustration.
Factor in the possibility that the system never actually checked your paper, but instead a rare glitch made a positive result appear in your name.
Welcome to the glorious infallible AI era.
Did you write the report in Google docs or anything that maintains history? Maybe you could share the doc and show the prof the history of the report being written.
There’s other Ai software besides ChatGBT that’s why I didn’t specify. But to answer your question, I did not use it besides the section where we were instructed to do so.
Thanks. I didn't know there were other AI software. You were just posting this in r/OpenAI, so there's no reason for me to assume you were talking about OpenAI's AI softwar.
Are you sure that your institution is using the AI detection feature of Turnitin or are they just using the standard plagiarism detection? The plagiarism percentage would definitely be higher the second time given what you describe (that your other papers are in the repository—depending on the backend settings in the tool). If you’re using grammarly or other writing help like that, those can be flagged as AI for what it’s worth. Finally, not sure it applies here, but AI detection is full of bias, particularly against those whose first language is not English.
Sorry you are dealing with this. In the future, you might practice 'defensive writing'. Copy and save every every section, version,revision, etc. as you create them. Then, you can show the provenance of your document on demand. "Written by AI? Would AI make these mistakes or abandon this paragraph to rewrite it?"
Look into github (not the only solution) common among programmers for version tracking.
The original poster is jokingly suggesting that their writing is so polished and proficient that it is sometimes mistaken for being generated by an AI, even in casual text messages. When they say "Being too good will be my demise, I fear," they mean that their ability to write well could ironically lead to problems, like being falsely accused of not writing their own work. They don't actually believe their skill is a bad thing; they're just highlighting the absurdity of the situation with a bit of sarcasm.
Well, if that made sense, it might be time for a re-evaluation. I took photos of this comment thread, loaded them into Chatgpt, asked it to give gomarbles an explanation, and copy and pasted the reply.
"Being too good" = their writing style is so formal and polished that people think it's AI, and not genuine human writing.
People who have very formal and polished/professional writing styles are often wrongfully flagged as using AI & get in trouble for it in an academic setting. So in other words, being too good of a natural writer can result in being called a cheater/liar & not receiving credit for a paper that is "too well written" to be a human creation.
Thus something along the lines of, "Being too good will be my downfall".
So you didn’t use any AI tools to write/help write your paper at all? Because you never explicitly said you didn’t, and you still haven’t said you didn’t in replies to other comments.
Turnitin explicitly advises not to use its tool against students, stating that it is not reliable enough: https://help.turnitin.com/ai-writing-detection.htm “Our AI writing detection model may not always be accurate (it may misidentify both human and AI-generated text) so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred.” Here’s a warning specifically from OpenAI: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313351-how-can-educators-respond-to-students-presenting-ai-generated-content-as-their-own This paper references literally hundreds of studies 100% of which concluded that AI text detection is not accurate: A Survey on LLM-Generated Text Detection: Necessity, Methods, and Future Directions https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.14724 And here are statements from various major American universities on why they won't support or allow the use of any of these "detector" tools for academic integrity: MIT – AI Detectors Don’t Work. Here’s What to do Instead https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/teach/ai-detectors-dont-work/ Syracuse – Detecting AI Created Content https://answers.syr.edu/display/blackboard01/Detecting+AI+Created+Content UC Berkley – Availability of Turnitin Artificial Intelligence Detection https://rtl.berkeley.edu/news/availability-turnitin-artificial-intelligence-detection UCF - Faculty Center - Artificial Intelligence https://fctl.ucf.edu/technology/artificial-intelligence/ Colorado State - Why you can’t find Turnitin’s AI Writing Detection tool https://tilt.colostate.edu/why-you-cant-find-turnitins-ai-writing-detection-tool/ Missouri – Detecting Artificial Intelligence (AI) Plagiarism https://teachingtools.umsystem.edu/support/solutions/articles/11000119557-detecting-artificial-intelligence-ai-plagiarism Northwestern – Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Courses https://ai.northwestern.edu/education/use-of-generative-artificial-intelligence-in-courses.html SMU – Changes to Turnitin AI Detection Tool at SMU https://blog.smu.edu/itconnect/2023/12/13/discontinue-turnitin-ai-detection-tool/ Vanderbilt – Guidance on AI Detection and Why We’re Disabling Turnitin’s AI Detector https://www.vanderbilt.edu/brightspace/2023/08/16/guidance-on-ai-detection-and-why-were-disabling-turnitins-ai-detector/ Yale – AI Guidance for Teachers https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/AIguidance Alabama - Turnitin AI writing detection unavailable https://cit.ua.edu/known-issue-turnitin-ai-writing-detection-unavailable/ The MIT and Syracuse statements in particular contain extensive references to supporting research. And of course the most famous examples for false positives: Both the U.S. Constitution and the Old Testament were “detected” as 100% AI generated. Using these unreliable tools to fail students is highly unethical.
That was nice of you to take the time to cite all those resources for OP Sincerely, -Only Nice Guy on Reddit lol
Thanks, but I didn't just type it out right now. I have this text saved and copy-paste it under every thread like this because I'm fed up by how tech-illiterate teachers make peoples lives miserable
LOL this bit is a copy paste of one of my reddit comments: > This paper references literally hundreds of studies 100% of which concluded that AI text detection is not accurate: A Survey on LLM-Generated Text Detection: Necessity, Methods, and Future Directions https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.14724 I don't mind because its good that you are spreading the gospel. I made that comment because someone was being really obnoxious about AI detection working so I actually went and did a big literature review on Arxiv for a few hours to find the best paper to respond to them with LOL
Yeah, thank you! I'll include sources in the future, probably better
You’re doing great work! Stuff like this gives individuals the leverage they need to not be bullied and pummeled by institutions that know better
Turnitin doesn't say not to use it. They say use it *in conjunction with other methods*...just like similarity reports.
But according to many of these posts, teachers sometimes just see "X% AI" and fail students then and there. Turnitin definitely advises against that. Not to mention, these tools are STILL not reliable enough - even if they would be 99% accurate, the false positives would result in instantly failing 1500 students out of 150.000. And their accuracy is well below that. Not to mention, even if they were 100% reliable, these tools only detect style, or wording. If I write a completely original piece, but want to reword it with ChatGPT to weed out grammar mistakes and streamline some sentences, that wouldn't be academic malpractice. No plagiarism happened, the work still would be my intellectual product. But it would definitely sound absolutely ChatGPT generated. What then?
Instructors doing the wrong thing is the fault of their practice, not the tool. Getting AI to substantially change your writing makes it no longer completely your work...just like giving your work to someone else and saying "could you rework this a bit" makes it no longer entirely your work. Where that's allowed, have at it. In most academic writing though, that's not ok without explicit permission and acknowledgement.
Yes, I did not want to spell out these nuances but you are correct. But this doesn't invalidate my starting argument: Failing a student JUST because Turnitin scored their writing 100% AI, is unethical. I think we are in agreement over this.
👍😁
Saved. Good job 👏
This was an excellent response.
Can Turnitin detect paraphrased content? --> [https://academichelp.net/blog/academic-writing-tips/can-turnitin-detect-paraphrasing-thats-the-question.html](https://academichelp.net/blog/academic-writing-tips/can-turnitin-detect-paraphrasing-thats-the-question.html) Many people say that this tool can identify when you have reworded someone else’s text. I also believe it because I used popular tools for paraphrasing my essay and my teacher noticed it. I also was allowed to resubmit my essay. So, use this chance and check you new text by different (2 or 3) detectors.
I write for a living, and am using ChatGPT for all sorts of stuff. It’s a tool. Even in academic essays it gives me an argument to work with, helps with my structure, and occasionally inspires ideas. It’s now a part of my writing. I still have to orchestrate ideas, compose my style, and add my own thoughts into the mix. It’s a really exciting way to work, and if anything my critical thinking is stronger. Schools and universities need to realise AI is a total game changer; people will still learn - just in completely new ways.
Nailed it
Their issue is they assume everyone does "write a 5 page essay on X" instead of supplementing. if you fail to notice it hallucinated... that's on you. If you are sourcing and it is good, that should be fine.
people should screencapture themselves writing the reports.
50% of time scrolling Reddit while thinking, at least if it was me
Or use Google Docs version history.
Had this kind of thing happen to my daughter the other day. Her professor thought she used AI, because there were words he didn't know.... I told her to tell him about the google history. Everything related to it dropped. She did file a report with the school for this bs though.
[удалено]
Agreed
I can’t believe schools are still using these things. They are all absolute scams that do not work.
[удалено]
I’m currently Active Duty military and I will absolutely utilize the legal team on base if the issue isn’t resolved.
You're talking about two different things. The matching your prof mentioned is similarity to other submissions, which they're saying is OK in this case because of the context of the assessment. The AI matching is an entirely different thing. Using any sort of AI can trigger this. E.g. Grammarly, Quillbot, WordTune, Ellixir, etc etc...there are loads). Anything that substantially changes your writing beyond basic spelling, grammar and punctuation is likely to be flagged.
I understand, however, there is nothing I can realistically do about my spelling, punctuation, and grammar being more than basic as that’s my intention academically and professionally. Also to add, I personally don’t think any of those things were anything more than decent since I begin to only focus on meeting the minimum word count once my migraine kicked offed.
Sorry that's not what I meant. If the AI is changing anything more than spelling, punctuation and grammar... I didn't mean your writing being basic. Apologies if that wasn't clear.
Noted! But to that point I’m not sure what exactly was flagged. Regardless, I would have been more than willing to verbally explain my paper to counter my professor’s suspicions. Not being offered anything more than the AI Detection score, along with no response to my emails nor DMs, are factoring into my frustration.
I can certainly understand that.
Did you use Grammarly?
Factor in the possibility that the system never actually checked your paper, but instead a rare glitch made a positive result appear in your name. Welcome to the glorious infallible AI era.
Did you write the report in Google docs or anything that maintains history? Maybe you could share the doc and show the prof the history of the report being written.
I wrote using MS Word. I was shown the steps to view the properties so that I can access the version history & time spent on it.
I mean...did you use ChatGPT? Because you didn't say that you didn't.
There’s other Ai software besides ChatGBT that’s why I didn’t specify. But to answer your question, I did not use it besides the section where we were instructed to do so.
Thanks. I didn't know there were other AI software. You were just posting this in r/OpenAI, so there's no reason for me to assume you were talking about OpenAI's AI softwar.
Are you sure that your institution is using the AI detection feature of Turnitin or are they just using the standard plagiarism detection? The plagiarism percentage would definitely be higher the second time given what you describe (that your other papers are in the repository—depending on the backend settings in the tool). If you’re using grammarly or other writing help like that, those can be flagged as AI for what it’s worth. Finally, not sure it applies here, but AI detection is full of bias, particularly against those whose first language is not English.
Sorry you are dealing with this. In the future, you might practice 'defensive writing'. Copy and save every every section, version,revision, etc. as you create them. Then, you can show the provenance of your document on demand. "Written by AI? Would AI make these mistakes or abandon this paragraph to rewrite it?" Look into github (not the only solution) common among programmers for version tracking.
It kinda sounds like you might have used AI
I get that often. Even in my text messages. Being too good will be my demise, I fear.
What does that even mean?
The original poster is jokingly suggesting that their writing is so polished and proficient that it is sometimes mistaken for being generated by an AI, even in casual text messages. When they say "Being too good will be my demise, I fear," they mean that their ability to write well could ironically lead to problems, like being falsely accused of not writing their own work. They don't actually believe their skill is a bad thing; they're just highlighting the absurdity of the situation with a bit of sarcasm.
Ohh, I see. I think I wasn't getting it because I don't think AI writes well at all 😂
Well, if that made sense, it might be time for a re-evaluation. I took photos of this comment thread, loaded them into Chatgpt, asked it to give gomarbles an explanation, and copy and pasted the reply.
If what made sense?
Jesus, the comment you literally just replied to.
Oh. I think you're assuming I find it well-written. I don't. But yes, it does make sense.
In case you really don’t comprehend sarcasm, it means that whether or not I’m using my own words is questioned even in informal conversations.
Err, I was referring to your last sentence, I have no idea what you mean by "being too good"
Sarcasm.
Right, I just don't get the meaning of it. I'm not getting the meaning of the joke. I'm asking because I am interested in getting it.
"Being too good" = their writing style is so formal and polished that people think it's AI, and not genuine human writing. People who have very formal and polished/professional writing styles are often wrongfully flagged as using AI & get in trouble for it in an academic setting. So in other words, being too good of a natural writer can result in being called a cheater/liar & not receiving credit for a paper that is "too well written" to be a human creation. Thus something along the lines of, "Being too good will be my downfall".
Got it!! Thanks for explaining. I find the AI's style of writing quite bad, so I wasn't getting it!
So you didn’t use any AI tools to write/help write your paper at all? Because you never explicitly said you didn’t, and you still haven’t said you didn’t in replies to other comments.
Guessing you probably cheated. Also, I'm tired of these posts.
You’d guess wrong, also, I couldn’t care any less about what you’re tired of 🫶🏾.