University of Georgia

At UGA, the default rule for student use of AI on their coursework is that it is not permitted unless it is explicitly authorized by the course instructor.

In each individual course, the instructor of record can determine what constitutes acceptable use of GAI by students. Therefore, it is important to proactively engage students in an open discussion about your expectations regarding GAI. For example, is the use of GAI off-limits, sometimes OK, or always encouraged?

See our resource on Generative AI Policies for Teaching & Learning for sample course policies (and more!).

Turnitin AI Writing Detector

Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector analyzes student writing, flagging segments of text it believes were either copied directly from generative AI output, or created using an AI-paraphrasing or word modulator / spinner tool. Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector is the only AI Writing Detector approved for use at UGA. UGA instructors should not use AI detectors that are not supported by UGA, as these other tools have not been vetted by UGA’s information security team, for FERPA compliance, or for protection of student’s intellectual property.

Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector can be found within the Similarity Report of a Turnitin assignment on eLC. For the Turnitin AI Writing Detector to function, work submitted to the Turnitin assignment must meet the following requirements (as of April 2025):

  • File size must be less than 100 MB
  • File must have at least 300 words of prose text in a long-form writing format
  • File must not exceed 30,000 words
  • File must be written in English, Spanish, or Japanese
  • Accepted file types: .docx, .pdf, .txt, .rtf
How should I interpret Turnitin AI Writing Detector scores?

The AI Writing Report Score indicates the amount of qualifying text within a submission that the writing detection model believes is likely generated by an AI tool. Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector will produce scores of 0% or between 20% and 100%. Turnitin testing has determined that there is a higher incidence of false positives when the score is between 1-20%. As of July 8, 2024, scores between 1% and 19% are replaced by an asterisk to indicate that the score is less reliable.

It is important that Turnitin scores not be used as a definitive measure of misconduct. Instructors should review sentence-level data from Turnitin and determine the appropriate next steps. If you suspect a piece of work was completed using generative AI, carefully analyze the work and compare it to past student writing. If you believe a violation of A Culture of Honesty may have occurred, instructors have a responsibility to report to the Office of Academic Honesty. A facilitated discussion will be scheduled for you to talk with the student about their process for completing the assignment and whether a violation occurred.

A note of caution about Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector

Although Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector is the sole, preferred AI writing detector for use at UGA, instructors should use Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector with caution.

False positives: Turnitin reports a sentence-level false positive rate of 4%, but studies show that this false positive rate is higher for students who speak English as a second language, as well as for text that was modified by a grammar modulator. Presumably, Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector would also flag students who inadvertently choose words in an order that Turnitin’s probability models say they should not.

Lack of source text: Turnitin’s Similarity detector provides contextual information for any flagged content. This allows instructors to determine if flagged content truly matches what Turnitin has identified as similar, by accessing and reviewing the suspected match. However, this is not the case for Turnitin’s Writing Detector – it is not possible for any AI detection tool to offer such context or suspected source.

AI advances outpace detectors: Turnitin’s AI Writing Detector was trained on output from GPT-3.5. Those with the resources to access more sophisticated tools than GPT-3.5 are better able to avoid detection.

Looking for more information on the AI Writing Detector? You can visit this Turnitin Guide.

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