Is Using ChatGPT Plagiarism? Academic Dishonesty in Dishonest Academia

ChatGPT-generated content is always original content. I don’t think that’s the debate throughout academia, though.

I think we’re debating semantics here. Academic gatekeepers want to redefine plagiarism as taking credit away from AI, fully knowing there is no victim in the equation between you, your AI, and your essay on the Evolutionary psychology of rats you just had it generate. All the content was original work, even with the proper citations. (Though some of the generated citations were completely fake.)

Are you plagiarizing your calculator when you take credit for its hard work equating answers on a test? No, and AI is the same sort of tool. It’s technically not “authoring” a text so much as calculating answers with a specific algorithm to gather information and feed it through a language model.

It’s a slacker’s best friend and hustler’s bid to make big moves. If only Academia wasn’t structured in a way that made so many people look for shortcuts then maybe we could all get behind this beautiful new tech.

Table of Contents

• The Ethics of AI Academia: Is ChatGPT Plagiarism?

• Detection Software and Plagiarism Checkers: Can Teachers Detect ChatGPT Plagiarism?

• Academic Integrity In Dishonest Academia

• How to Make AI Undetectable So Your Professor Can Stop Weaponizing False Claims of Plagiarism Against You

• What To Do If You Get Accused of Using AI-Generated Text/AI Plagiarism

• Conclusion

• FAQ

The Ethics of AI Academia: Is ChatGPT Plagiarism?

Academics know the use of ChatGPT isn’t plagiarism, so they have to qualify the word “plagiarism” to redefine its meaning, creating: “AI plagiarism”. Even then, I think most students would still recognize handing in an essay that is purely AI-generated content breaches most outdated guidelines for academic integrity.

If the ethics were clear, believe me, we would see far less AI usage than the current rate of 56% of college students in the United States using AI to assist them in their assignments and exams. These students aren't dishonest people, they’re the country's brightest. Humans will always use the tools available to them to make their lives easier. Resistance is futile.

All ethics involve philosophical discussion. Certainly integrating revolutionary new tech into human life does. So, let’s examine the philosophy of AI in academia:

Direct from the source, you can see many universities are warming up to the idea of using AI, including tasking it to write your essays and assignments.

In documents like this AI ethics guide from Cornell, you can see them stress a different set of priorities regarding AI usage than most might expect. They seem to care more about what corporations might own the AI chatbot you’re using, the environmental impact of using artificial intelligence, the diversity of AI users, and students participating in free labor by feeding into ChatGPT’s Machine Learning with free training data, than they care about plagiarism, or whether students develop critical thinking and writing skills.

Now, wouldn’t it be hypocritical if an institution with such high ethical standards would employ software that had a proven bias against international students? Well, AI Detectors have such a bias, as proven by a Stanford study which found non-native English speakers were flagged 61% of the time.

Much of the ethics regarding AI are as performative as any ethical matters broadcasted at universities these days. Sorry, but their takes on ethics are processed through an ideological lens, similar to a machine, that gives them more cookie-cutter responses than ChatGPT ever generated.

That same Cornell ethics guide to AI cites this paper written by The International Journal of Information Management all about the benefits of employing AI generative content. So, at least they’re not being realistic about the future, even if they are still using AI detection tools to impose harsh penalties.

Detection Software and Plagiarism Checkers: Can Teachers Detect ChatGPTPlagiarism?

Plagiarism checkers have been used in academia for decades. AI detection tools like Turnitin and GPTzero may include plagiarism detection as an additional feature, but really what they do is look for certain watermarks of AI’s writing style in a text. These watermarks are usually things like simplicity in diction and sentence structure. You know, things you can find frequently in any human writing, which detectors do all the time, generating more false positive results the closer they look at any text.

Many universities have integrated AI detection tools into their protocol. Some have given them a test drive, and then dumped them because of the high false positive rate and the climate of suspicion they've created in academic settings. One professor at Texas A&M even wrongly failed his whole class when they were all flagged with false positives.

If you use ChatGPT to write an essay and hand it in. You will get flagged. Students in the know use undetectable AI services if they plan on handing in academic writing by generative AI.

Read this blog post to learn everything about the current state of AI detection tools.

Academic Integrity In Dishonest Academia

The dishonesty and hypocrisy surrounding academic AI policy involve multiple offenses:

Plagiarism: Remember earlier in 2024 when AI ran the papers of numerous high-profile university faculty, including the heads of Ivy League institutions, through plagiarism checkers and found they used identical language to previous dissertations without proper citation? We do. Here’s one article detailing the probe into Harvard’s president that undermines academia's case against students accused of AI plagiarism, in case you forgot.

Educators Using AI: Professors and other faculty use AI technology for a slew of reasons. From creating lesson plans, lecture ideation, assignment generation, grading, reviewing papers, AI detection, and admissions review. “Good for me but not for thee” personified.

Equity: Many universities that make pledges to uphold equity among their students can see the potential of using AI to equalize the playing field. However, they will simultaneously use detection tools like Turnitin and GPTzero with proven bias.

How to Make AI Undetectable So Your Professor Can Stop Weaponizing False Claims of Plagiarism Against You

Easy. Get StealthGPT. Our AI humanizer specializes in rephrasing and rewriting text that ChatGPT generated into humanized, undetectable text so you can actually use the original content you asked ChatGPT for. Or you can use the natural language processing software of our own Stealth Writer to generate humanized, undetectable writing directly from us.

Check out this guide to our Stealth Writer and learn how StealthGPT can help you generate original undetectable AI content.

What To Do If You Get Accused of Using AI-Generated Text/AI Plagiarism

I went ahead and consolidated the steps undertaken by students who have been accused and documented exactly how they won their appeals. Seeing as Turnitin just updated their software, nullifying the undetectability of every service except StealthGPT, ya’ll want to know these steps:

• When responding to a failing grade or AI-usage accusation, be polite and assertive of your innocence.

• If this does not work, go to your student affairs office and get further direction.

• You will need evidence of your innocence so be prepared with documents showing your history with the assignment and preparation for it.

• Do your own research and compile sources that testify to the faultiness of AI detectors.

• Try to get witness testimony of your working on the project.

All these things will win an appeals case. Read all about the latest Turnitin update here and see if your AI tools just failed you.

Conclusion

Simply, ChatGPT only makes original content. So, ChatGPT is plagiarism-free. Some institutions have expanded the definition of plagiarism to account for AI. They use AI detectors to find such usage in your work but fear not, these detectors can be bypassed with undetectable AI services.

You don’t have to have a guilty conscious about using ChatGPT or StealthGPT. You should have a guilty conscious about using Turnitin or any of our competitors. The ethics of using new tech are never black and white, especially if the faculty is using it. 52% of college students in the US are using it for good reason. Too much meaningless work in school, too easy of a shortcut available to everyone.

Plagiarism is stealing but the only steal involved in using Undetectable AI to write your essays is our pricing. These subscription plans simply can’t be beat.

Speaking of availability, StealthGPT is cheaper than ever and has AI language models in every major language so you can use it no matter where you find yourself on Earth. We just updated StealthGPT's software with tons of new features and a better mobile experience than ever before, which you can read all about.

FAQ

Is ChatGPT Plagiarism Free?

Yes. Chatbots generate original content and provide proper citations if that’s what you ask for. The only problem you might encounter is that sometimes it cites references inaccurately with completely made-up information.

Why Would Openai Allow People To Use ChatGPT for Evil Purposes?

They’re not. People policing the use of new technology by ruining the futures of bright, young students are the evil ones.

What is Undetectable AI?

AI-generated text is made undetectable by humanizing the diction and sentence structure of any text so no AI Detection tools can tell the difference.

Why Did I Need This Article To Tell Me What I’m Doing Isn’t Wrong?

You didn’t. Academics need it so they can loosen up!