Turnitin’s ChatGPT and AI writing detection capabilities go live (Australia & New Zealand)

Australia & New Zealand – April 5, 2023 – Today, Turnitin - a leading provider of academic integrity solutions globally - will activate its AI writing detection capabilities. The technology identifies the use of AI writing tools, including ChatGPT, enabling educators to analyse and review the authenticity of academic work.

Turnitin began working on detection capabilities for GPT3, the underlying technology on which many AI writing applications are based, nearly two years prior to the release of ChatGPT. Built to help educators and academic institutions identify AI-generated text in student-written submissions, Turnitin's AI writing detection capabilities are integrated into existing Turnitin systems and accessible through learning management systems, and do not require additional steps for current Turnitin educator users to access.

“Discourse around how AI might reshape education – good and bad – has ramped up in the last two years, and the launch and accessibility of ChatGPT amplified that significantly,” said James Thorley, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific at Turnitin. “We have worked on detecting AI writing since 2020, and can now offer a way to pinpoint the use of ChatGPT and other tools. We are also conducting tests on GPT-4.”

“These capabilities give educators a powerful tool to maintain academic integrity across their student cohorts, providing powerful, actionable and cross-institution data insights to enrich decision-making. AI is among the most transformative technologies in our society when used the right way. Banning it is ineffective long-term. The ability to detect it and steer it to serve as a ‘force for good’ while mitigating harmful effects is the end goal for which to strive.”

Over 10,700 institutions and more than 2.1 million educators will be able to quickly and easily evaluate a submission for the presence of AI-generated text and provide feedback to students in their current Turnitin workflows.

Turnitin’s AI detector provides an evaluative measure of how many sentences in a written submission may have been generated by artificial intelligence, which educators can use to determine if further review, inquiry or discussion with the student is needed.

“Educators told us that being able to accurately detect AI written text is their first priority right now. They need to be able to detect AI with very high certainty to assess the authenticity of a student's work and determine how to best engage with them,” said Chris Caren, CEO at Turnitin. “It is equally important that detection technology becomes a seamless part of their existing workflow, which we have done by integrating AI detection capabilities into Turnitin solutions.”

“Turnitin’s technology has high accuracy and low false positive rates when detecting AI-generated text in student writing,” said Annie Chechitelli, Chief Product Officer at Turnitin. “What we are providing for educators now has been in development for years. In the coming months, we will continue to refine and adapt our detection capabilities, using field data to increase accuracy.”

Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities are available within existing products and solutions, including: Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS), TFS with Originality, Turnitin Originality, Turnitin Similarity, Simcheck, Originality Check and Originality Check+.

To help the education community navigate and manage this new technology in the classroom, Turnitin has published an AI writing resource page. The publicly available web page is regularly updated with practical resources from the company’s Teaching and Learning team, which consists of former and current educators. Current resources include a glossary of AI terms, a guide on updating an academic integrity policy in the age of AI and a downloadable AI misuse rubric to help educators proactively prepare writing assignments from potential AI-generated text. The page also reports progress in refining detection capabilities as AI writing technology continues to evolve.

For 25 years, Turnitin has been a trusted partner of educators, giving insights into student writing, and helping to uphold the standards of academic integrity for more than 16,000 institutions in 140 countries worldwide.

This press release has been translated in Bahasa, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. North America and Europe and Middle East, and Southeast Asia versions are also available.

About Turnitin

Turnitin is a global company dedicated to ensuring the integrity of education and meaningfully improving learning outcomes. For 25 years, Turnitin has partnered with educational institutions to promote honesty, consistency, and fairness across all subject areas and assessment types. Turnitin products are used by educational institutions and certification and licensing programs to uphold integrity and increase learning performance, and by students and professionals to do their best, original work.

Turnitin has offices in Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Over 16,000 academic institutions, publishers, and corporations use Turnitin services: Gradescope by Turnitin, iThenticate, Turnitin Feedback Studio, Turnitin Originality, Turnitin Similarity, ExamSoft, ProctorExam, and Ouriginal.

For Australia and New Zealand-related media inquiries:

Nermin Bajric
Watterson for Turnitin
P: +61 430 955 199
E: nermin.bajric@watterson.com.au

Whitney Erickson
Watterson for Turnitin
P: +61 402 322 872
E: whitney.erickson@watterson.com.au