Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    University Transformation
Sign In
Detecting AI

A Plagiarism Detector Will Try to Catch Students Who Cheat With ChatGPT

By Eva Surovell April 3, 2023
DigitalStudentCover_Agnew.jpg
Lincoln Agnew for The Chronicle

As faculty continue to debate how artificial intelligence might disrupt academic integrity moving forward, the popular plagiarism-detection service Turnitin announced on Monday that its products will now detect AI-generated language in assignments.

Turnitin’s software scans student submissions and compares them to a database of past student essays, publications, and materials found online, and then generates a “similarity report” assessing whether a student inappropriately copied other sources.

The company says the new feature will allow instructors to identify the use of tools such as ChatGPT with “98-percent confidence.”

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

As faculty continue to debate how artificial intelligence might disrupt academic integrity, the popular plagiarism-detection service Turnitin announced on Monday that its products will now detect AI-generated language in assignments.

Turnitin’s software scans submissions and compares them to a database of past student essays, publications, and materials found online, and then generates a “similarity report” assessing whether a student inappropriately copied other sources.

The company says the new feature will allow instructors to identify the use of tools like ChatGPT with “98-percent confidence.”

There is no option to turn off the feature, a Turnitin spokesperson told The Chronicle. The company has made an exception to suppress the AI detection for a select number of customers with unique needs or circumstances, but it didn’t specify for whom such exceptions would be made. The tool is available to more than 10,000 institutions, including many colleges and K-12 schools, and 2.1-million educators, according to the company.

Chris Caren, chief executive of Turnitin, said in a statement that educators have told the company being able to accurately detect text written using artificial intelligence is their highest priority.

“They need to be able to detect AI with very high certainty to assess the authenticity of a student’s work and determine how to best engage with them,” Caren said. “It is equally important that detection technology becomes a seamless part of their existing workflow.”

Most colleges, departments, and individual faculty members have not developed guidelines yet on how AI tools like ChatGPT should be used in the classroom, according to a recent survey. So detection software could be helpful in the short term “to keep the dam from breaking” as professors continue to discuss what to do about ChatGPT, said Michael Rettinger, president emeritus at the International Center for Academic Integrity, an organization founded to combat cheating, plagiarism, and academic dishonesty in higher ed.

But the feature’s usefulness will decline as ChatGPT and other AI tools become more mainstream, Rettinger said. That might happen sooner rather than later: ChatGPT debuted in November and has quickly grown to over 100-million active monthly users.

Sarah Eaton, an associate professor of education at the University of Calgary who studies academic integrity, said detection software could soon become “futile” as artificial intelligence is increasingly used to draft and edit human writing — or the other way around.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Really soon, we’re not going to be able to tell where the human ends and where the robot begins, at least in terms of writing,” Eaton said.

For the time being, higher ed will likely be playing catch-up until professors figure out how to integrate artificial intelligence into their classrooms. Then, the challenge will be teaching students how to use it and coming up with new methods of assessment, Rettinger said.

“In the long run, it is absolutely incumbent upon us as a higher-ed sector to change the way we think about writing and assessment as the result of these changes in technology,” Rettinger said.

While the AI-detection feature could be helpful in the immediate term, it could also lead to a surge in academic-misconduct cases, Eaton said. Colleges will have to figure out what to do with those reports at a moment when professors have yet to find consensus on how ChatGPT should be dealt with in their classrooms.

ADVERTISEMENT

But banning tools like ChatGPT is pointless, Eaton said.

“This technology is here — it’s ubiquitous,” Eaton said. “If we want to prepare our students for a present and a future where AI is part of their reality, then this is something that we’re going to need to confront.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Technology Teaching & Learning
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
About the Author
Eva Surovell
Eva Surovell is a reporting intern at The Chronicle. You can contact her at eva.surovell@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Illustration of a magnifying glass highlighting the phrase "including the requirements set forth in Presidential Executive Order 14168 titled Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
Policy 'Whiplash'
Research Grants Increasingly Require Compliance With Trump’s Orders. Here’s How Colleges Are Responding.
Photo illustration showing internal email text snippets over a photo of a University of Iowa campus quad
Red-state reticence
Facing Research Cuts, Officials at U. of Iowa Spoke of a ‘Limited Ability to Publicly Fight This’
Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues

From The Review

Photo-based illustration of a tentacle holding a microscope
The Review | Essay
In Defense of ‘Silly’ Science
By Carly Anne York
Illustration showing a graduate's hand holding a college diploma and another hand but a vote into a ballot box
The Review | Essay
Civics Education Is Back. It Shouldn’t Belong to Conservatives.
By Timothy Messer-Kruse
Photo-based illustration of a hedges shaped like dollar signs in various degrees of having been over-trimmed by a shadowed Donald Trump figure carrying hedge trimmers.
The Review | Essay
What Will Be Left of Higher Ed in Four Years?
By Brendan Cantwell

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: A Global Leadership Perspective
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin