Turnitin can detect and flag text written by ChatGPT AI

Turnitin, a plagiarism detection software has launched an AI detection tool that detects essays written using AI tools like ChatGPT

Can Turnitin detect AI-written texts?

Turnitin can now detect papers written using AI writing tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google Bard. The AI text detection feature is available in Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS), Originality, Similarity, and Simcheck products.

False positives

Although Turnitin indicates that it can detect content generated by AI tools with 98% confidence, sometimes it can turn out to be wrong. We have come across a number of students frustrated by Turnitin’s AI tool continuously flagging their essays as being written by AI tools despite not using any AI writing assistant. This puts professors in a difficult position because they are torn between believing the AI detection results or the student’s words.

What to do if Turnitin AI detection tool wrongly flags your work

If your school professor has given you a second chance to rewrite your paper, below is what you should do to avoid false positives.

Avoid using advanced grammar correction tools like Grammarly as they use AI algorithms to proofread articles. This makes content that is overly corrected by Grammarly sound like it is AI-generated. 

Make your writing style sound more human by using linking words, and personal pronouns. Also, avoid using generalities in your text as they can trigger AI detectors.

Lastly, if Turnitin continues to flag your essay as being written by AI, then look for a screen recording tool and record your screen as you write. You can use the recording to prove that you wrote the article. Additionally, use Google Docs for writing as it has version history which can be essential when proving the process you took to write the paper.