The AI age is here. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemeni have already changed how many of us do our jobs and use the internet, and the companies behind them are pouring billions of dollars into making generative AI faster and smarter.
Generative AI can be a useful research tool, but it can also be a crutch. Concerned about possible cheating, universities across California and the rest of the country have rushed to develop strategies to detect AI-written papers and punish students who didn’t do their own work. But are these policies fair, or are they leading to false accusations against honest college students?
Detecting AI Writing: Accurate or not?
The main way professors and administrators combat AI plagiarism is through using AI detection software. These tools review an essay, exam, or other written work for signs that portions of it were AI generated. As you probably know, AI writing tends to repeat certain words and tactics, such as “navigate” and lists of three, and occasionally awkward language that can give away that a person didn’t write it. Detection software purports to sift between human- and AI-generated writing and produce a percentage.
In general, AI detection software considers a piece of writing with 8% suspected AI work or less to be original work. Above that, and the student who turned it in could be accused of cheating. This can lead to academic punishments like suspension and even expulsion.
However, there are serious questions about the accuracy of AI detection software. Companies like Winston AI advertise a 99.98% accuracy rate of detecting AI writing, but testing indicates that it can be prone to flagging human writing as “AI” if it’s clear and logical. In other words, depending on the student’s style, they could be in danger of a false positive – and thus punished for something they didn’t do. This seems to be an especially big problem for students who speak (and write) English as a second language.
Concerns about AI detection tools’ reliability led schools like UCLA to decide against using Turnitin, one of the industry leaders, over “concerns and unanswered questions” regarding the false positive risk back in 2023. However, UCLA has since bought a license to Turnitin and allows its professors to use it to scan their students’ papers.
California College Students Have Rights
Society is going to have to make a lot of adjustments as AI changes the way we work, communicate, and learn. But we must be careful not to overreact. A college student accused of cheating on a paper or exam and facing expulsion has the option of working with an attorney to defend themselves. If your son or daughter is accused of cheating, a lawyer experienced in education law can guide them through the process and work toward a fair outcome.