Turnitin is a popular tool used by educators to check for plagiarism. The program compares submissions to its database of existing content and flags areas that are similar, possibly indicating that a student has plagiarized or misattributed work. The company has recently released a new feature that allows instructors to identify if students have written their papers using AI writing tools such as ChatGPT. This article provides a overview of this new capability and highlights some important considerations.

Turnitin’s AI detection model is not how to get around turnitin both human and AI-generated text. As such, the company’s AI writing detection indicator should not be relied upon as the sole basis for any adverse decisions about a student’s submission. Instead, it should be viewed as an indicator and contributing evidence as part of a comprehensive evaluation of whether academic misconduct has occurred.

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As of this writing, Turnitin’s AI detection model has a 98% confidence rate in identifying AI-generated text. To minimize the incidence of false positives, the system is displaying an asterisk in situations where the percentage indicates that a submission has less than 20% likelihood of being AI-generated to make it clear that the result should be interpreted with caution.

As this technology continues to develop, it will be critical for educators to remain vigilant in evaluating its reliability and appropriateness for their academic contexts. By working closely with students, ensuring that they understand the importance of properly citing sources, and encouraging instruction in responsible use of AI writing tools, we can help to minimize the risk of wrongful accusations while upholding academic integrity standards.