The recently announced University of Cape Town decision to disable Turnitins AI detection feature is to be welcomed and other universities would do well to follow suit. This move signals a growing recognition that AI detection software does more harm than good.
The problems with Turnitins AI detector extend far beyond technical glitches. The softwares notorious tendency towards false positives has created an atmosphere where students live in constant fear of being wrongly accused of academic dishonesty.
Unlike their American counterparts, South African students rarely pursue legal action against universities, but this should not be mistaken for acceptance of unfair treatment.
A system built on flawed logic
As Rebecca Davis has pointed out in Daily Maverick: detection tools fail. The fundamental issue lies in how these detection systems operate. Turnitins AI detector doesnt identify digital fingerprints that definitively prove AI use. Instead, it searches for stylistic patterns associated with AI-generated text.
The software might flag work as likely to be AI-generated simply because the student used em-dashes or terms such as delve into or crucial a writing preference that has nothing to do with artificial intelligence.
This approach has led to deeply troubling situations. Students report receiving accusatory emails from professors suggesting significant portions of their original work were AI-generated.