Introduction
When ChatGPT first hit the scene, it felt like an iPhone moment. This was something we had never seen before, and it was immediately clear that education would be one of the first things disrupted.
Now, a few years later, AI is gaining massive popularity, and schools are scrambling to keep up. Even OpenAI admitted early on that reliably detecting AI writing is extremely difficult. Stories about detection errors are becoming common, and one teacher even reported in a reddit post feeling extreme guilt after failing a student and later realizing AI detection is not perfect.
One such technology for AI detection being used by academic institutions is Turnitin, a platform that originally started as a plagiarism detector but has recently expanded to include AI.
How Turnitin’s AI Detection Works
Turnitin looks for patterns typical of large language models, such as overly consistent phrasing, formal structure, and a lack of personal nuance. It categorizes flagged text into two groups:
AI-Generated: Content written entirely by an AI model.
AI-Paraphrased: AI-written text that has been lightly edited or passed through a paraphrasing tool.
But even Turnitin admits its system is not perfect:
- They prioritize precision over recall, meaning they would rather miss some AI writing than falsely accuse a student.
- They expect a 1% false positive rate, meaning one out of every hundred fully human-written essays might still get flagged.
- Repetitive writing, outlines, lists, or short answers are more likely to trip the system even when the work is original.
- The system only processes long-form English prose, not code, poetry, or reference lists.
In short, false positives happen. Detection tools are not final judgment. Instructors are encouraged to treat AI flags as a conversation starter, not an automatic accusation.
How You Should Be Using AI
Just like copying information straight from a webpage was a problem in the early days of the internet, so is blindly copying whatever AI produces. Used wisely, though, AI is one of the best study tools ever invented.
It can really jumpstart the brainstorming phase. Let it help you outline your ideas, sort information and get you started. Then, rewrite everything yourself. Add your own examples and style into the mix.
It’s also okay to paraphrase information from reliable sources, this is actually expected in academic writing. Just make sure to cite where the ideas came from. Finally, reference your experiences, tell stories that include your feelings, and speak naturally.
Tips to Make Your Writing Feel More Human
- Vary sentence lengths: AI tends to write with consistent, medium-length sentences. Break it up.
- Add Experience: AI writing often sounds neutral and detached. Let your personality shine!
- Be a little messy: Slight imperfections like an offbeat example make writing feel real.
- Fact Check: AI can find you great information from thin air sometimes. Make sure you cite a source.
- Avoid Special Characters: AI is often trained on professionally written material and will use characters that are less common in everyday writing. One example is the emphasis dash (—), a special character that typically requires a keyboard shortcut to create.
- Make a Mistake: AI almost never makes grammar or syntax errors. If you really want to throw detection tools off, sneak in a error... like this one. (should have used "an" instead of "a")
- Test It: If you are unsure about something you worked on, run it through an AI detector like GPTZero. I recommend checking one paragraph at a time as you go.
Conclusion
Turnitin’s AI detection is not perfect, and as models keep improving, it will only get harder to spot AI-written text. But that does not mean the best move is trying to outsmart the detectors by trickery.
The real play is to actually put in some work while still taking advantage of what AI can do. Use it as your companion, not your ghostwriter. Let it boost your productivity by summarizing large amounts of information and helping you build an outline, but make sure you put in the effort to understand the material and develop your own thoughts.
If you do that, you will not just fly under Turnitin’s radar, you will actually learn something!
NoteKnight Flashcards
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