Plagiarism finder Turnitin adds AI detection amid popularity of ChatGPT

Turnitin, a popular program educators use to detect plagiarism in student papers, announced Monday it has added “AI detection capabilities” amid the boom of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence platforms.

Turnitin can detect “the use of AI writing tools including ChatGPT, with 98 percent confidence,” it said in a press release. 

“Educators told us that being able to accurately detect AI written text is their first priority right now,” CEO Chris Caren said. “It is equally important that detection technology becomes a seamless part of their existing workflow, which we have done by integrating AI detection capabilities into Turnitin solutions.”

Turnitin says the technology to detect GPT3, which is used in AI technologies including ChatGPT, has been in the works at the company for more than two years. 

“Turnitin’s AI detector provides an evaluative measure of how many sentences in a written submission may have been generated by artificial intelligence, which educators can use to determine if further review, inquiry or discussion with the student is needed,” it said. 

ChatGPT has caused quite an uproar among educators in K-12 and higher education, with some excited to embrace the technology while others raised concerns about the difficulties of catching cheaters using AI. 

Turnitin said integrating AI detection will immediately benefit the 2.1 million educators who have access to its programs. 

Turnitin also released an AI writing resource page for educators that gives advice about academic integrity policies in the age of AI and will update teachers about advances in AI writing capabilities.

The creators of ChatGPT have already upgraded their program less than six months after becoming available to the public, and the AI technology is expected to only get better.