In this guide:
- The AI writing indicator
- The AI writing report
- What is qualifying text?
- How do we detect AI-generated writing?
Turnitin's AI writing detection capability is designed to help educators identify text that might be prepared by a generative AI tool such as large-language models, chatbots, and word spinners.
Our AI writing detection model may not always be accurate (it may misidentify human-written, AI-generated, and AI-generated and AI-paraphrased text), so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred.
The percentage generated by Turnitin’s AI writing detection model is different, and independent of, the similarity score. AI writing highlights are not visible in the Similarity Report.
The AI writing indicator
When you open a Similarity Report, the AI writing indicator is in the side panel. After a short period of processing, the indicator will display one of three potential states:
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Blue with a percentage of 0 or between 20 and 100: The submission has processed successfully. The displayed percentage indicates the amount of qualifying text within the submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was generated by AI. As noted previously, this percentage is not necessarily the percentage of the entire submission. If text within the submission was not considered long-form prose text, it will not be included. Our testing has found that there is a higher incidence of false positives when the percentage is between 1 and 20. In order to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation, the AI indicator will display an asterisk (*) for percentages between 1 and 20 to call attention to the fact that the score is less reliable. To explore the results of the AI writing detection capabilities, select the indicator to open the AI writing report. The AI writing report opens in a new tab of the window used to launch the Similarity Report. If you have a pop-up blocker installed, ensure it allows Turnitin pop-ups.
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Low percentage (*%): False positives (incorrectly flagging human-written text as AI-generated) are a possibility in AI models. To avoid potential incidence of false positives, no score or highlights are attributed for AI detection scores in the 1% to 19% range. When AI is detected below the 20% threshold in the report, it is now indicated with an asterisk (*%) and no percentage is attributed. This change is reflected in new submissions only and will not retroactively apply to existing submissions. If your report was generated before July 8, 2024, then you may still see a numerical score below 20%. |
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Gray with no percentage displayed (- -): The AI writing detection indicator is unable to process this submission. This state means that the AI writing report cannot be opened. This can be due to one, or several, of the following reasons:
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Error (!): This error means that Turnitin has failed to process the submission. This state means that the AI writing report cannot be opened. Turnitin is constantly working to improve its service, but unfortunately, events like this can occur. Please try again later. If the file meets all the file requirements stated above, and this error state still appears, please get in touch through our help center so we can investigate for you. |
The AI writing report
Overall percentage detected as AI
The overall percentage detected as AI indicates the qualifying text (prose sentences contained in a long-form writing format) within the submitted document that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines could be generated by AI or could be generated by AI and could be further paraphrased using AI tools such as a word spinner.
The Submission Breakdown
The overall percentage of text detected as AI is detailed in two detection categories in the Submission Breakdown:
- AI-generated only - This category detects qualifying text that was likely generated from a Large Language Model (LLM). Text of this category is highlighted in a cyan color in the submission breakdown bar and in the submission.
- AI-generated text that was AI-paraphrased - This category detects qualifying text that was likely AI-generated and then likely modified by an AI-paraphrasing tool or AI word spinner, such as Quillbot. Text of this category is highlighted in a purple color in the submission breakdown bar and in the submission.
Please note that only our English AI detector includes AI paraphrasing detection capabilities, at this time our Spanish AI detector does not include AI paraphrasing detection capabilities.
Interactive submission breakdown bar
Use the new submission breakdown bar for a visual overview of where an AI Large Language Model and AI-paraphrasing tools have been detected within the individual pages of a submission. The bar is interactive and allows you to select each color highlight to bring the corresponding text and page of the submission into focus.
What is qualifying text?
Qualifying text (prose sentences contained in long-form writing format) means individual sentences contained in paragraphs that make up a longer piece of written work, such as an essay, a dissertation, or an article, etc. The model does not reliably detect AI-generated text in the form of non-prose, such as poetry, scripts, or code, nor does it detect short-form/unconventional writing such as bullet points, tables, or annotated bibliographies.
This means that a document containing several different writing types would result in a disparity between the percentage and the highlights.
How do we detect AI-generated writing?
How Turnitin has made this determination is complex. To help our users understand Turnitin’s method of detecting AI writing text, we have created an extensive FAQ. Learn more about Turnitin’s AI writing detection tool.
AI detection will only work for content submitted in English. It will not process any non-English submissions. As we continue to iterate, we will keep you updated on developments around non-English language support.