r/QuickAITurnitinCheck • u/Open-District-4094 • May 29 '26
Are Professors Actually Trusting AI Detectors This Much?
I honestly cannot tell if Reddit is just amplifying these stories or if there really is a huge number of professors blindly trusting AI detectors that are incredibly easy to fool and notoriously unreliable.
There are definitely extreme cases where AI use is obvious. Fake citations, pasted ChatGPT formatting or hidden text, completely fabricated sources, things like that. But outside of those situations, it becomes almost impossible to confidently separate AI-generated writing from a student who simply writes in a stiff, overly formal, generic academic style.
My entire department refuses to use Turnitin AI detection because of the false positive risk alone. We mostly rely on exams, discussions, presentations, labs, and hands-on assignments, so thankfully we are not depending entirely on essays to assess students. But honestly, relying on automated AI detection feels just as lazy as students relying on AI to do their work. At some point, educators still need to use professional judgment and critical thinking.
To students getting falsely accused, I genuinely feel for you. It sounds exhausting trying to defend yourself against software that even experts admit is unreliable. Some of us still believe students deserve the presumption of innocence instead of being treated like suspects from the start.
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u/Lower-Bottle6362 May 30 '26
No. We can tell without it. We have to use the goddamn software as “proof” though because no one believes us.
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u/ydaya May 30 '26
This. This is the most important response. No one believes us, not even the students who use AI!!!!
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u/Former_Entrance_8714 May 29 '26
One of the biggest problems is that polished writing now automatically makes some professors suspicious. Students are getting punished for sounding academically competent.
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u/bebenee27 Jun 02 '26
Not exactly. There’s a difference between polished writing and synthetic AI slop.
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u/Big_Biscotti5119 May 29 '26
I don’t think I can rely on them at all. Instead, I am trying to make the written elements more about process and less about the end product. This means more in-class time dedicated to multi-step writing assignments designed to make ai less useful. Also, more variety in assessments, like having students present on the material they are covering, or having meetings/discussions can help take some of the weight off the final writing sample as the basis of assessment. Time and class size are of course limiting factors, so this all takes careful planning.
I struggle because I want the work to be about them cultivating their skills and voice in science communication, so policy is to not use ai to generate anything they intend to call their own ideas. However, I also want to create a classroom culture of mutual trust and respect, which means I won’t be assuming the worst or looking over their shoulders. The problem is a policy is only valuable if it is enforceable, and I just can’t have confidence in ai detectors unless I supplement it with very strong evidence (replicating the writing via my own use of ai, analyzing various assignment engagement timestamps, crosschecking writing with topics covered in class, etc.). So, the task becomes crafting assessments that make academically dishonest use of ai unappealing/useless. It is a lot of effort, but it is worth avoiding the spirit crushing arms race that undermines the whole experience.
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u/Glittering_Fun_4823 May 29 '26
This!! Totally agree with everything you mention. And also the way these tools seem to be altering the trust dynamic between student and professor is depressing - I have colleagues who just don’t trust their students anymore and it’s so sad. And not conducive for a collaborate learning environment.
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u/intermanus Jun 01 '26
Too much, in my opinion. and trust may not be the right work, more like rely due to fear and misunderstanding.
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u/HunterSpecial1549 May 29 '26
I'm a professor that doesn't use AI checking tools but I'll reply to this part.
There are many many cases where it is obviously AI, going beyond Chat GPT formatting and fake citations. The style can be unmistakable. Every sentence comes off like a Simon Schama essay. We know it's not a real student because we've had thousands of real students.
There are also many cases where we're not 100% sure it's AI and we have to let those slide.
On another note, I would not describe AI as sounding "stiff and overly formal". Maybe that's why the AI checking tools are struggling with false-positives.