Plagiarism
7 of the Biggest Myths About AI and Plagiarism
There are plenty of misconceptions, assumptions, and myths about AI and plagiarism. Discover seven of the biggest myths surrounding AI and plagiarism.
There are plenty of myths, misconceptions, and assumptions flying around about AI and plagiarism. Let’s take a closer look at what’s fact and what’s fiction.
Discover seven of the biggest myths surrounding AI and plagiarism. Get insight into whether AI-generated content can be plagiarized, whether plagiarism detectors can identify multiple types of plagiarism and more.
One of the most pervasive myths about AI and plagiarism is that AI-generated content can’t be plagiarized. According to this myth, you’re free to copy and paste whatever tools like ChatGPT and others create.
While it’s true that content generated by AI isn’t directly plagiarism, AI still pulls from its vast training database in order to generate text. That text can very closely mimic existing works simply because the AI doesn’t know it’s plagiarizing — it’s just regurgitating data from its training.
This can lead to unintentional plagiarism, especially if the generated content isn’t properly referenced or cited.
AI and plagiarism detectors are powerful. As they continue to evolve and improve, they’ll become increasingly sophisticated as well.
Yet, even with the very latest training and updates, it’s a myth that AI and plagiarism detectors are flawless. For example, some detectors can still miss subtle instances of plagiarism, like paraphrasing.
The Originality.ai plagiarism checker is trained to detect paraphrasing. However, it’s important to note that not all plagiarism detectors work the same way. So, capabilities can vary depending on which company you choose.
So, if you’re using a plagiarism checker to streamline your editing process, it’s best practice to further review potential instances of plagiarism and look for proper citations.
At Originality.ai, our machine learning engineers are continuously working to improve the efficacy of our AI and plagiarism detection tools and reduce false positives.
AI is incredibly smart, but at its core, it’s only doing what it was trained to do — which echoes the truth about Myth #2 in this list (despite its advanced technology, AI isn’t flawless). AI tools aren’t a replacement for human fact-checking.
Fact-checking is still incredibly important because AI can also hallucinate or make up facts on the fly. Using a fact-checker helps to highlight and identify facts that need further human review.
For a comprehensive approach, you can combine fact-checking with plagiarism detection to make sure that the facts in your article are accurate and properly cited as well.
Not all AI plagiarism detectors are created equal. Much of their accuracy and core functionality depends on what they’ve been trained on, what algorithms they’re using, and how often they’re updated.
For instance, when using the Originality.ai AI Detector, you can choose to simultaneously scan for plagiarism and AI text from tools such as ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Google Gemini, or Claude 3.5 Sonnet. That way, you can combine AI and plagiarism detection to stay ahead, with the rise of AI content.
However, not all AI detectors include plagiarism detection, so it’s important to review products carefully.
If you use an AI tool to help you write, is that considered plagiarism?
That being said, in general, using AI tools as assistants to help you write or edit is not considered plagiarism or cheating.
In fact, many writers, journalists, content creators, and students use AI tools to streamline content ideation, improve their language skills, and even boost productivity by creating frameworks such as content briefs or outlines.
As long as the end result is the user’s own creative and authentic work, then AI is a tool similar to the computer they used to write the end product. Remember, that if AI assisted in the research, it’s always a good idea to be transparent and properly attribute it as a source.
Many people mistakenly believe that plagiarism checkers are only helpful for high school, college, or university students doing research papers or essays.
The truth is plagiarism is a major concern in many fields including journalism, the workplace, and even plagiarism in coding. If AI tools were only used to check academic work, they would be missing many instances of plagiarism outside of the classroom.
For this reason, now more than ever, AI plagiarism detectors are a must-have tool wherever maintaining integrity, originality, and intellectual property rights are crucial.
In another one of those “AI myths vs. reality” misconceptions, many people believe that plagiarism checkers can only identify direct copying and pasting plagiarism. This myth likely comes from years of using traditional plagiarism detection platforms, where looking for exact-match keywords was the process.
Today many plagiarism detectors are much, much smarter than their predecessors and are able to recognize more subtle, complex forms of plagiarism. These can include idea theft, structural similarities, paraphrasing, and more.
By using advanced algorithms that understand the underlying context and meaning of the text, as well as analyzing the writer’s unique style and word choice, today’s modern plagiarism checkers, some of which are powered by AI, can often spot content appropriation for a variety of plagiarism types.
With the rapid increase of AI-generated content there are countless myths circulating about AI and plagiarism. The main takeaway is that AI is best used as an assistant to the writing process.
Avoid potential issues with plagiarism by using an AI Checker or Site Scanner to highlight AI content for further review and fact-checking.
Then, add your own unique spin on content to provide value to your readers, remember to create proper citations when referencing work from other authors, and remain transparent with your audience when AI is used to research, write, or edit content.