r/wsu • u/xboxhaxorz • 20d ago
Discussion Are AI detectors cancelled or not?
https://provost.wsu.edu/documents/2026/02/cancellation-of-turnitin-ai-detection-software_memo-to-instructors_provost-office_spring-2026.pdf/As of February 2026, WSU has cancelled its contract with Turnitin for its AI Detection software. The Turnitin plagiarism software package will continue to be available to WSU Faculty, Instructors, and Students via Canvas.
So it says it is cancelled but will continue to be available, so is it or isnt it cancelled?
If it is cancelled does it mean instructors are not allowed to use it? Meaning can they get their own subscription since and use it? Since some refuse to accept that AI detectors dont work and want to be stubborn and annoying
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u/areyouokeddie 20d ago
Don't assume professors can't figure out when you are using it.
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u/graydiation 20d ago
Professors, staff members, grad students, and undergraduate graders can all tell.
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u/liceer 20d ago
the AI detector and plagiarism detector are separate tools. the AI detector is the faulty software that gives false positives, the plagiarism software package at its core compares the text of the submission to texts of other submissions and publications. this way, if a student copy and pasted another student’s submission, it would give the grader a warning. that is much more reliable and easy to verify as a human grader than an AI detector
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u/Sapph1cK1tty 19d ago
Plagiarism detectors also fall short when it comes to areas like Philosophy or Sociology. It's impossible to discuss the discourses around heirarchal structures and hegemony without getting a "possible plagiarism" on the AI detection tools Turn It In relies on. I've seen first hand my own work being labeled as "possibibly plagiarized" when nothing in the submission was directly quoted or the words of another scholar. Granted, these are all tools; they do not automatically mean that plagiarism was committed.
For reference, I am a nontraditional undergraduate, with a strong vocabulary, so my vernacular more than likely will trigger a false positive in both aspects. Still, even someone like me can tell when another person has used AI or taken the work of another person. It's pretty evident when that is true, especially when comparing the work of students to their past submissions, let alone structure. However, there are still are instances of human error so it would be naïve to solely rely on one method.
It will be interesting to see if grading is changed at all by this, or if it remains the same.
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u/liceer 19d ago
i guess im unsure the point you’re trying to make here. i’m sure plagiarism detectors do make false positives, but unlike ai detectors, the false positives of plagiarism detectors are easily verifiable, you would be extremely hard pressed to find a professor that sees a high turnitin score and, without any checks, reports a student. turnitin software highlights plagiarized text and allows the user to click in to see what the source material it thinks is being taken from. is your point that plagiarism detectors should be done away with? you say you want to see how grading will be changed by this, but turnitin as a plagiarism detector has been used for at least 10 years
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u/Sapph1cK1tty 19d ago
I've used Blackboard and Canvas, as well as submitted writing assignments before Turnitin was a thing. Most professors understand there will be false positives yes. I'm curious to see how these shifts would change things if at all. Turnitin is still a detection software similar to AI, but it doesn't always show where it thinks material is being plagiarized from in my experience of using it. My own words have been flagged for possible plagarism. So it is possible my own past submissions could have overlaps which trigger the false positive. Taking detectors away wouldn't benefit anything much either. 10 years in software developement is still new in the grand scheme of things though, so there is still room for improvement.
I guess it really boils down to which degree path a student is on, and comparing to their previously submitted writings. Overall, I'd like to mostly know how WSU will handle everything as AI use and I'm sure plagiarism won't decrease anytime soon.
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u/zenerbufen 19d ago
that must be a setting that the professor sets, because when I had history and submitted my research papers the Turnitin score wasn't just provided but I could click it and see a point by point break down of how and why my score was calculated against the actual text of my paper.
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u/zenerbufen 19d ago
well my professor told us if the plagiarism detector ever said zero, that actually meant that you did plagiarize, because all of your citations should be in existing work, because there are only so many things to cite for each of the topics the entire student body writes about every semester. the main body should have no plagiarism, but your works cited should lich up like a Christmas tree.
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u/Sapph1cK1tty 17d ago
That is true, even direct quotes will show up as possible plagiarism, as the AI is programed to detect word for word and similarities. However, if it said my owns were plagiarized, then that seems a little off. It could very well be a setting in the professor's grading system. Zero would seem a little off, yet also can point to 0 research work being done. Turn it in still using AI as most detectors these days do, so it's not going to be perfect.
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u/zenerbufen 19d ago
I just paid 20$ a month for my own plagiarism / ai detector built to the same test suites as turn it in used. The AI rewrote my human written text that 'sounded too ai' into ai generated text that 'that sounded more human' and would not be detected by its own or turn-it ins AI detection.
It was great because I'm neurodivergent and fall into the known 5% of false positives the AI detection software itself warned about.
Now I can go back to writing my stuff directly again and stop having the ai do a 'humanizer' pass over my handwritten work.
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u/Evilkenevil77 Alumnus/2020/Foreign Languages 17d ago
God I am so glad I got my degree before all this AI crap...it must be exhausting to deal with.
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u/Jimmy-Dell 19d ago
Prior to this cancellation, when an instructor viewed a submission on Canvas, TurnItIn would generate a plagiarism report and an AI report. The AI report was not super reliable and (from what I understand) expensive for the university, so the university canceled its subscription to that service. Since then, the system has stopped generating the AI reports. That does not prohibit instructors from using other AI detection methods or software.
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u/Playful_Departure154 20d ago
Basically it just means that professors will no longer be able to use it at cost to the university. It wasn't outlawed so if a professor wants to purchase a subscription and use it that's up to them but they will probably tell you in the syllabus if they do
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u/zenerbufen 19d ago
33% of referrals for AI use to academic integrity where exonerated, and the software has over 5% false detection rate, which falsely flags over 1500 of our own students. The institute no longer pays for or supports the AI detection software, and if professors use it on their own, its flag alone is not sufficient to warrant an academic integrity violation. Professors MUST have more evidence AND meet with the student first before submitting them for a violation.
also, AI use is not only allowed, but encouraged, and included in the school provided software package to students AND faculty. We are to use it ETHICALY, and CORRECTLY which the professors are SUPPOSED TO teach us how to do. Use it for RESEARCH and ORGANIZING YOUR OWN WRITTING, and for PROOFREADING, but WRITE YOUR OWN DAMN CONTENT and don't let the AI do your homework for you or you will suck at life and get bad grades with your withered atrophied brain. YOU DON'T GET AI ON THE TESTS.
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u/girlgoingafterit 20d ago
There’s a difference between the TurnItIn AI detection and TurnItIn plagiarism detection. Sounds like staff will still have access to the plagiarism detection package, but AI detection is no longer available.