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Maybe you live under a rock and haven’t seen the latest AI auto generator. If that is the case, allow me to introduce you. Chat GPT is a new AI software that uses writing prompts, such as “write an essay on the creation of marshmallows”, to generate and spit out fully written, seemingly well researched blurbs, messages or possibly full essays. 

While the technology itself is fun to play around with, it does raise concerns for the possibility of plagiarism if we’re looking at it from an academic standpoint. Most schools haven’t updated plagiarism policies to include condemning the use of AI to write your papers for you – and rightly so, we’re in a new digital age that is going to come with new hurdles. 

What is the threat then to plagiarism, academic integrity and so on from this genius bot who is shockingly well written? Well, the risks are seemingly being stamped out before a problem can start.  

Turnitin.com, the plagiarism detection software used by most schools, stated that they are equipped to detect plagiarism aided by bots and AI generation, according to an article on hitc.com written by Darcy Rafter. 

They also mentioned that they can and will upgrade their software to be aware of AI generators such as Chat GPT and those that are likely to appear in the coming years – if not, months.  

Turnitin.com is designed to scan student submissions for plagiarised or unoriginal content, which means it is also already likely effective against AI writing tools. These well-written messages and essays don’t just come from some pocket of intelligence within the AI bots – it all comes from the internet! This is also Turnitin.com’s main source of reference for detecting plagiarism.  

And although Chat GPT does do a shockingly good job at making things seem well-written for being AI-generated, there is technology developed and being further developed that analyzes machine-generated text according to Rafter’s article.  

What does this mean? If you thought you could get away with it, you likely cannot. We all want a hand during midterms and exam season, but this won’t be the hand for you unless you’re okay with the academic consequences.  

Keep your morals and ethics in the right spot and just use Chat GPT to help you craft a smart call-in message to your boss or a quick apology text to your mom for not making it home for dinner on the weekend.