Is ChatGPT Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a serious offense in academia. Stealing other people’s words and ideas without proper citation will completely discredit an academic or intellectual in the world of professional scholarship. Although it’s becoming rather prevalent in the highest echelons of society, for ordinary students, plagiarism can get you expelled.

However, what about when you’re not stealing anyone's words or ideas? In fact, the words and ideas you're using are completely original works, they’re just not your own work. This is the case for the reported 86% of university students using AI for school work today, submitting text written by AI tools and passing them off as they’re own.

We’re going to discuss the ethics of using artificial intelligence to help you in school. There are some use cases where it’s encouraged, some where it’s reluctantly embraced, and others where it’s considered academic misconduct. So, is using ChatGPT plagiarism?

Well, kinda....

Table of Contents

• What is ChatGPT?

• What is Plagiarism?

• How To Detect ChatGPT?

• How to Bypass AI Detectors

• Conclusion

• FAQ

What is ChatGPT?

OpenAI’s free AI language model, ChatGPT, has revolutionized how people create text. As discouraged as students are from using ChatGPT to write their essays, there’s just so much meaningless busy work in college that students don’t care if it’s hindering they development of their writing skills, they want to use AI-generated content in school.

The way generative AI technology works is by scouring the many datasets it has available to it then coming up with answers based on previous writing. So, it’s possible that AI writing is paraphrasing other people’s words and ideas, making it possible to get caught by a plagiarism checker when AI writing passes through it.

Most detection software systems do more than feature plagiarism detection though, they look for the watermarks of AI-generated text as well. You see, generative AI has a writing style just like humans do. In the case of AI large language models, they generate simple, precise writing so anyone can understand it. Humans, however, write with randomness, complexity and naturalness.

What is Plagiarism?

A form of intellectual stealing, really. The point of academic writing is making original arguments and points. Academic writing of real quality goes on to shape intellectual ideas and movements, and then that school of thought goes on to change the world and create business. This is why stealing in the context of academic writing needs to be taken very seriously.

Beyond just tarnishing the reputations of people that have been accused of plagiarism, those that engage in plagiarism can have their careers upended by an accusation.

Different schools have different plagiarism policies and codes of ethics, however, this Oxford guide gives us good insight into both plagiarism and AI plagiarism. To answer whether using AI chatbots to write your essay is plagiarism, it’s a newly labeled form of academic misconduct known as AI plagiarism.

This academic misconduct breakdown shows how plagiarism constitutes the largest slice of violations at Georgetown university. It's safe to assume much of these violations are rooted in AI usage.

To curb AI plagiarism, universities have integrated detection tools like Turnitin into submission portals like Canvas and Blackboard, while also employing a host of other plagiarism detectors like Quillbot, Grammarly, GPTZero, and more.

How to Detect ChatGPT

In order to determine whether a piece of text is plagiarism-free, people use AI detectors to find the use of AI in an essay. AI detection systems measure text for the watermarks of AI, namely perplexity and burstiness. If the language is too simple and precise in both word choice and sentence structure, the text will get flagged by an AI detector.

This image shows us how different AI detectors fare after passing AI generated essays of different kinds through them.

These days, ChatGPT-generated content will easily be flagged by most AI detectors. However, new software systems using natural language processing are creating undetectable content by making their text feel more human than ever before.

How to Avoid Plagiarism From ChatGPT

Bypassing AI detection requires using undetectable AI software like StealthGPT to humanize the text into content that AI detectors fail to see the presence of AI in. If you make the writing style of a ChatGPT essay feel more natural, random, and complicated, you are humanizing the text. This easy use of ChatGPT and StealthGPT to bypass AI detection begs the question whether AI detectors work at all.

Conclusion

Using ChatGPT to write your essay is a form of plagiarism known as AI plagiarism. It is not however, traditional plagiarism, in that there is no theft of words or ideas present because generative AI creates original work.

Still, in order to preserve academic integrity, AI plagiarism is a serious charge that can ruin your professional prospects. If you need to use AI for schoolwork, you will want to use an undetectable AI tool like StealthGPT which will ensure you don’t get punished.

With so many students using AI, and so many factors that thwart the use of AI detectors, academia needs to rethink how to embrace and integrate AI into the learning experience. There have to be some appropriate use cases and there has to be less room for busy-work and unnecessary units in the pursuit of a degree.

FAQ

What are the Downsides of Using AI Detectors?

AI Detectors have a relatively high rate of false positives. Turnitin, for instance, has a false positive rate of 4% at the sentence-level. Also, many AI detectors have a proven bias against non-English speaking students as reported by a Stanford study. AI detectors also change a campus culture by creating a climate of suspicion.

How Will AI Change Academia?

Beyond the use of AI for writing your essays, the main change coming is personalization of curricula. When AI that personalizes curricula becomes available, professors can utilize AI to make sure that every student need can be addressed. Previously, no one person could have the bandwidth to address every student need, but AI advancements will change that.

Who Uses StealthGPT?

Students and professionals alike use StealthGPT to create undetectable AI for either academic work or professional work. Whether creating content for digital marketing, social media, blogging or SEO, StealthGPT gives you the chance to exponentially increase the rate and quality of your workflow. For students, StealthGPT lets you generate essays, automate in-text citations, create study guides and tests, and so much more. It’s a one stop location for all your school and content creation needs. Check out StealthGPT's pricing page to learn about our different plans and start your free-trial today.