Is it possible to check for AI or human writing, and are there any risks in using AI tools for help with assignments? The short answer is yes, as any educational institution now implements an AI essay checker to detect AI misuse and catch academic cheating. How and why do they do it, and what are the ways to prevent AI abuse accusations?
Why teachers check for AI
Originality and authenticity are the crucial requirements for any assignment. Here is why:
- using AI for generating essays hinders the progress, as the student doesn’t learn or improve their skills in the process;
- AI cheating is unfair to the peers and creates inequality in the group;
- AI cheating is disrespectful towards the educator who wastes their time on a robot-generated assignment;
- misusing AI increases the risk of plagiarism as chatbots do not create original content but produce output based on existing materials;
- AI output can be misleading as chatbots hallucinate and may provide inaccurate information;
- an AI-generated essay may jeopardise the whole institution’s reputation if published;
- universities guarantee the expertise of their graduates, which is impossible in the case of AI cheating.
Using an AI chatbot to generate the text is a severe violation of academic honesty, unless the task requires AI-produced content. However, AI tools can be a tremendous help with brainstorming, time management, and learning if implemented mindfully. Therefore, it is crucial to know how to check if an essay is AI generated so that educators can protect academic integrity and students can steer clear of cheating accusations.
How AI detectors work
An AI detector is a tool designed to tell whether the text is human or AI writing. The instrument is trained on various types of content to learn about the characteristics of AI-generated and human-written texts. It takes into account many parameters, including syntax, stylistic patterns, tone of voice, and the creativity/predictability ratio, which is one of the most important among them. AI chatbots’ logic is based on finding the most relevant output, which makes their text more predictable, whereas human creativity is immeasurable.
AI detector scans the submitted text and highlights the parts that match the patterns it knows as characteristic of AI content. Based on this analysis it provides a report with the flagged questionable parts and overall verdict regarding the essay.
Why is my essay detected as AI if I haven’t cheated? No tool is perfect, and false-positive results are possible.
Why is AI detected in my essay when I didn’t use it?
AI chatbots evolve and learn to write more and more like humans, while human writing may resemble AI-generated texts stylistically and lexicologically. It means that sometimes AI detectors take human-written text for chatbot output, producing false-positive results. It may happen especially often with formal, technical, and narrowly specific texts that tend to use terms, idioms, and certain linguistic constructions that cannot be altered.
Another reason for false positives can be limited word choice, which often happens to non-native speakers, who tend to use basic patterns rather than sophisticated synonyms.
While AI detectors evolve along with AI tools technologies, there will always be limitations and false-positive risks, which is why it is recommended that educators rely on the tool as a hint but never as a final judgment. However, it happens that false-positive detection result leads to mistaken AI misuse accusations.
How to prove the essay is authentic
Why is my text being detected as AI? And, most importantly, how can one prove authentic effort if an AI detector states the essay is generated?
- Learn about AI detection mechanics. It will be much easier to talk to your teacher and discuss the problematic extracts when you understand the way AI detectors operate and the reasons behind false-positive results.
- Present notes and drafts. If your educator states you have generated the assignment, there is no better way to prove the opposite than to demonstrate your honest effort.
- Be ready to answer the questions. Offer your teacher to discuss the subject, ask you questions regarding the material, and explain your train of thought to show you have dug into the topic.
- Track your writing process. Use cutting-edge tools like Integrito to present your workflow in a report that would show any suspicious activity from your side.
- Check for AI traces before you submit the assignment. To predict the result your teacher sees after the AI check, you can run the essay through the AI detector before submission. This way, you get a chance to edit any problematic parts, stay on the safe side, and preserve peace of mind.
How to prevent AI cheating accusations
The best tip on how to make an essay not AI detectable is to write it authentically. However, even in this case, false-positive AI detection results happen. Save notes and drafts to demonstrate writing progress, check for AI before sending your essay to the teacher, and be ready to discuss the AI detection results with your educator if needed.
Bottom line
Can essays written by AI be detected?
Yes, as modern AI checking tools can distinguish between AI-generated and human-crafted texts with 99% accuracy and even highlight the robot-produced parts.
Why is my essay detected with AI as chatbot-produced?
If the text is human-written, it can still be detected as AI-produced due to limited or specific vocabulary, text structure, or style. No tool is perfect, so AI detectors should always be used in combination with human expertise.
How do I make my essay not AI detectable?
Write it authentically and run it through an AI detector to edit potentially problematic parts and avoid false positives.
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