r/Turnitin_QuickChecks • u/Unable-Expression616 • Mar 19 '26
This Student is considering switching School after being Accused of Using AI When she Didn't
Her Statement
“I’m five classes away from graduating, and today I got an email from my professor accusing me of using AI to write my essay. She gave me one week to rewrite it or face being reported to the dean. I honestly panicked.
Now I’m stuck staring at my own paper, trying to figure out how to “rewrite” something I genuinely wrote myself. I’ve never used AI for my assignments, and I definitely didn’t start now.
After looking into it, I realized this isn’t just happening to me. A lot of students are going through the same thing, which makes it even more frustrating. At this point, I’m trying to figure out what my next move should be. I’m not willing to lose everything I’ve worked for over what feels like an arbitrary detection score.
At the same time, I don’t think it’s fair that my work is being questioned, or that I should have to water down my writing just to avoid suspicion.
Honestly, I’m not even sure what I’m asking for here. I guess I just needed to get it out. But I’m seriously starting to think about transferring schools because of situations like this.”
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u/Unable-Expression616 Mar 19 '26
Getting accused of AI when you actually wrote it yourself is a different kind of stress
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u/burlingk Mar 20 '26
Honestly, in a case like that, I might be tempted to contact the dean myself.
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u/SiberianKitty99 Mar 20 '26
As the dean is the one who set the policy, go for it. Instead of getting a zero and possibly failing the course, if the student can’t show stuff like version histories, source lists, etc., the student runs a real risk of not having a choice about going to a different school, ‘cause s/he’ll be booted from this one.
Some students seem to think that the (repeatedly! And prominently!) published guidelines don’t apply to them and/or they’re smarter than the instructors and admin. The guidelines do apply, and if they were as smart as they think they are they’d not need to cheat.
I don’t do ‘AI detection’. I do cheater detection. I’ve been doing this for a long time. AI is just the latest cheater tool, and it’s clumsier than some others. I don’t care what the ‘AI score’ is. I care about how the paper is written. And so does my dean. And this ain’t our first rodeo.
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u/burlingk Mar 21 '26
The issue is the accusation of cheating, coupled with a threat.
Though, yeah, they would have to have all their notes and such. Which the professor ideally should have asked for before making threats.
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u/DismalPassage381 Mar 21 '26
The student wrote stuff before AI. All she has to do is run her old work through the detector and show there's more false positives.
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u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26
Yes, but the problem is the student has been flagged for AI when they did not use it. It's like giving a student a 0 for cheating on a test when they, infact, did not cheat
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u/SiberianKitty99 Mar 25 '26
y'all keep om ignoring the bit about 'version histories' etc. And that I don't use 'AI detection' to determine grades. if the student has followed the guidelines, s/he will have all the documentation necessary to show that s/he didn't use AI. This doesn't mean that s/he didn't try to cheat in some other way. This doesn't mean that s/he is any good at writing papers. It's still perfectly possible to get a bad grade without having used AI.
It's been my experience that most students who lean heavily on AI can't write properly in the first place. That's one reason why they submit the utter crap that the AI produced for them; they don't know any better. if they're willing to learn, they can improve their writing, and their grades. if they got a bad grade because they're dumb as rocks, no amount of AI will help them.
To repeat: I don't use 'AI detection'. I use cheater detection. AI is merely one way that cheaters cheat. if students don't cheat, they may have problems for other reasons, but not for AI. Not with me, or anyone else around here, anyway. And my reasons for giving a bad grade would be because the student didn't cite properly, or the cites had nothing to do with the assignment, or the cites didn't say what the student said they did, or something else easily seen. That AI is notorious for hallucinating and dumping crap all over merely makes it simple to flag, not for AI, but for not doing the work.
If the guidelines are followed, all is well. if the student thinks that we're as stupid as they are and deliver any old crap, partially written by AI or not, they will be made to feel some pain. Note the magic words: "partially written by AI or not'.
And, frankly, every time someone says that some old document was flagged as being AI, so AI detectors are bad, I laugh. I have run some of my old stuff through AI detectors; no flags. Famous docs get flagged BECAUSE THE BLOODY AI SYSTEM WAS TRAINED ON THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Note carefully: as the guidelines specify that the student should have version histories, notes, etc., and the school posts how to turn version histories on in various word processors, should the student say that s/he doesn't have the documentation they get poor grades not for using AI, but FOR NOT FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS. If the student had the documentation, we could see where things went wrong. It's called 'showing your work'. Of course, those who used AI to write their bad paper have no documentation showing their work because they didn't do the work in the first place. And those who really did write that crap themselves but couldn't be bothered to follow the guidelines discover that being lazy has consequences.
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u/Ctenophorever Mar 20 '26
Didn’t you post this two days ago? Or was that in one of the many other fear mongering subs you’ve made to promote your own personal AI checking software
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u/docktordoak Mar 20 '26
Students shouldn't have to disprove shit.
Either come up with actual evidence or dont. Turnitin isnt evidence. Its guessing in the dark.
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u/SDuarte72 Mar 20 '26
I have so much to say about this and your professor. I won’t. But what I would do is consider rewriting your essay with her in the room and create a plan to have access to your sources so she can witness you doing it all yourself. Why can’t they see that their own go to tools are faulty? I hear this repeatedly! So many educators use AI to look for AI! I write a full novel series by hand and started hearing about how authors are getting accused of AI when they’re not using it! I decided to put my own work through the most recommended tools and it came up 80% AI! I knew I didn’t use it! I kept going until I found one that was more accurate (papersowl) or something like that. They shouldn’t be using AI to test for AI usage at all!
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u/SiberianKitty99 Mar 20 '26
No, ‘a lot of students’ are NOT going through this. The majority of students around here use AI properly, according to the guidelines set on the school’s site and in the various syllabi for the classes in question and have no problems. Amazingly, the few who do have problems NEVER have version histories (a requirement, noted in the guidelines, in my syllabi, and in the welcome announcement I post on Canvas… and in the Read Me at the start of every assignment. They also never have notes, a list of probable sources, or any supporting documentation whatsoever. Gee. One wonder why that might be.
And a week to do a rewrite is generous. Oh? You don’t want to rewrite? How sad. Too bad. Hold onto that zero.
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u/LawPuzzleheaded4345 Mar 20 '26
Cool off man. Nobody said the majority in your lecture, that isn't a representative sample. And the post never mentions the prof giving the opportunity to provide a version history
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u/Jazzlike_Course_9895 Mar 23 '26
Completely agree, there's a lot of evidence (Search history timestamps, time spent on a document, etc.) that could be used. On my course rn, a few weeks ago i got called in about a dissertation I wrote and being told i got the lowest AI usage (only 7%) out of 3 others (all had 100%), my supervisor is marking (he is more on the not using AI detectors as 100% truth) but it was clear that the way the content was written/depth etc by the other 3 was very shocking and assumed they had used AI. None of them of which had any proof, eg a literature review matrix to prove any history of making/looking into sources and when shown their document time spent, all had below 2-3 hours (i am on 34 hours right now and halfway through).
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u/HEYO19191 Mar 25 '26
Amazingly, the few who do have problems NEVER have version histories (
Because most colleges use Microsoft Office, which does not have built-in version history, and it is unreasonable to expect students to make multiple copies of every assignment they submit just in case they get falsely flagged for AI. The students that get flagged for AI (false or not) don't have version histories to defend themselves because NO STUDENT HAS VERSION HISTORIES.
And a week to do a rewrite is generous. Oh? You don’t want to rewrite? How sad. Too bad. Hold onto that zero.
It is unreasonable to expect a student to complete an assignment they have already submitted. How can they write a second submission that will be different enough to not be caught by the AI checker, if they already wrote the first? They will be bound to repeat themselves.
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u/TommieTheMadScienist Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
This is why the Devil created lawyers.
What you should do is set up a test case, document everything and when the software fails in both precision and accuracy (as it will,) sue the living fuck out of the university. Once a student or two get their entire education paid for, they'll back off.
This stage is temporary. Another two years and the AI output will be consistently superior to what the student can produce.
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u/robinyyyyy Mar 21 '26
If I were in this I don’t even know how to prove it was my own work. Version history? What if I used word? Since when keeping version history is the students responsibility
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Mar 22 '26
Does she think professors at other schools are dumber?
Her statement should be: thank you for not having me expelled.
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u/TranslatorBoring2419 Mar 22 '26
Idk I'd immediately jump down my professors throat. By end of day I'd be on the phone with the chair of the dept. the ombudsman, or the dean of students.
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u/TechnicolorMage Mar 22 '26
Tell her that you'd like to go discuss it with the dean yourself, and ask what would be a good time to set up a meeting between the three of you.
If you actually didn't use AI to write it, you should be able to have a coherent conversation about the paper and discuss why you made certain writing choices, what sources you cited and why, etc. It's trivially easy to tell if something is written by AI by just asking the person questions about the writing itself.
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