Can Professors Detect ChatGPT?

Writing with AI

8 min read

Can Professors Detect ChatGPT?

Learn how universities detect ChatGPT code in your assignments even after you used AI detection tools yourself.

Written by

Catherine B.

Published on

May 9, 2025

Table of contents

Why Do Teachers Use AI Detectors? University AI Policies Explained
Methods Universities Use to Detect ChatGPT
How Do AI Detectors Flag the Text as AI-Written?
Can You Check Your Work Accurately Yourself Before Submitting?
Meet Upcoming StudyPro AI Detector: Accurate Turnitin Alternative
Conclusion

Table of contents

Why Do Teachers Use AI Detectors? University AI Policies Explained
Methods Universities Use to Detect ChatGPT
How Do AI Detectors Flag the Text as AI-Written?
Can You Check Your Work Accurately Yourself Before Submitting?
Meet Upcoming StudyPro AI Detector: Accurate Turnitin Alternative
Conclusion

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You submit a paper and breathe out with ease. The hard part is done! Only to find out a day later that your work is in dispute status and is accused of AI writing…

A 2023 study shows that your text may be flagged as AI-written simply because you are a non-native English speaker.

So, is it truly fair to use AI detectors? Can professors detect ChatGPT? Why do these checkers falsely flag the content?

In this article, StudyPro collects the latest data on AI detection to explain how it works and how professors use detectors to evaluate your assignments.

Why Do Teachers Use AI Detectors? University AI Policies Explained

Teachers and professors in schools and tertiary education use AI detection tools because academic integrity matters to the educational system. Basically, university AI policies are not student’s enemies but protectors.

Punishing academic dishonesty protects the right of each student to be evaluated, recognized and celebrated equality for their wit, achievements, and knowledge.

AI detectors in education help to ensure a few key principles:

Upholding academic integrity. All the students are evaluated under the same standards.
Prevention of unfair advantage. No student can get an illegitimate edge over the others.
Due processes in academic misconduct cases. All students are granted procedural justice to ensure fairness.
Non-discrimination in evaluating students. AI detection prevents biases or arbitrary grading in universities.
Academic recognition and certification integrity. All degrees, honors, and distinctions reflect genuine achievement, safeguarding the value of qualifications for all students.

So, basically, using AI detection tools in education means that while every student may access and use AI technology, the evaluation of the final student’s work still fairly grades the student, not the AI-generated content.

But then, are these detection tools accurate, do they truly honestly grant an equal treatment to all students? Can teachers detect ChatGPT if a student’s writing style is just complex and well-structured?

Unfortunately, yes. You may be falsely accused of using AI chatbots.

Methods Universities Use to Detect ChatGPT

Why can your assignment be falsely flagged as AI-written? And can professors detect Chat GPT-generated text manually?

Let’s walk the path step-by-step to understand why you may be falsely accused and how to avoid that.

First, how do professors detect AI? Teachers and universities can detect AI-created text with two methods:

Technical
Manual

Here is a brief breakthrough of both methods:

Methods of detection used by AI detection tools

Method	Method description
Perplexity	Measures text predictability; low perplexity suggests AI.
Burstiness	Analyzes sentence variety. AI text is often more uniform.
N-gram Frequency	Checks word sequence patterns; AI may show unusual frequencies.
Embedding Analysis	Compares text's numerical vector to AI/human text clusters.
Watermarking Detection	Identifies hidden signals embedded by the AI-generating model.

Table 1: Technical methods universities use to detect ChatGPT code in writing

2. Manual methods of detecting AI (though some are also used for AI detector training)

Method	Method description
Factual inaccuracies	AI may state incorrect facts or cite non-existent sources
Stylistic inconsistency	Compares submission to student's known voice and writing style
Lack of personal voice	Work is generic, missing unique insights or personal connections
Overly polished, formulaic	Writing is too perfect, robotic, or uses repetitive structures
Inability to explain work	A student cannot discuss or elaborate on their submitted work
Version history tracking	Shows if the text was pasted wholesale, not typed gradually

Table 2: Manual methods universities use to detect AI content

Read also how to make your essay not AI detectable and get your guide in gaining experience in writing with AI.

How Do AI Detectors Flag the Text as AI-Written?

AI detection tools use perplexity, burstiness, n-gram frequencies, and other methods listed above to label the text as AI or human written.

We have already discussed the nuances on how do AI detectors work. Check the article for more details. Along with this reading, you may also need to know how to humanize AI text. Consider this article and these two links to your basic AI education - after understanding all core principles, you will feel much more confident with AI application in your studies.

Can AI detection tools mistake my natural writing for AI-generated content?

Yes, your work can be flagged as AI-written even if you haven’t used AI tools at all. Popular AI detection tools sometimes misclassify human-written text as AI-generated. The reason for this is that generic-purpose detection tools are not customized for academic settings.

Universities and colleges are mainly using five leading AI detectors:

Turnitin's AI Detection,
Copyleaks AI Content Detector,
Originality.ai,
Scribbr,
GPTZero.

Are these detectors accurate? Can Turnitin detect ChatGPT in your work?

Yes, professors can detect AI text with about 100% accuracy with Turnitin. The study shows that Turnitin and Copyleaks perform with 0% of incorrect or uncertain detection rates. Copyleaks and Originality.ai detectors are close to 100% rates, followed by all other tools showing lower efficiency.

Can professors detect Chat GPT after you rewrite the text?

The answer depends on what you mean by rewriting. AI written text triggers multiple “markers” built in the AI tools meant to look for them like in a checklist. AI software scans:

Sentence structures,
Language critical analysis
Code signs of AI models

If you check AI written work against all these parameters, then no, professors will not detect AI in your writing assignments. However, remember that universities detect ChatGPT in your academic writing by comparing regular human like text to your assignment. Chat GPT detection may include asking you to write essays on other topics or submitting texts via Google docs and Google Classroom.

Why do professors detect AI even after you check the text?

There are a few reasons why your text gets caught in the university tool even after you double-checked it yourself:

Access and price. Turnitin does not provide personal user access, and tools like Copyleaks that show proven efficiency may be costly for students.
General models, no student-focused approach. In academic settings, the required style is more formal, regulated, strict, and precise. Popular AI detection tools usually cannot tell human-written academic-style text from the machine writing style.
AI signatures. Most AI detectors don't understand meaning; they analyze statistical properties, such as token distribution, entropy, and syntactic regularity. You may think that you fixed the text. However, some technical markers may still preserve, even the invisible ones. Generic AI detectors would not be able to catch that.

Can You Check Your Work Accurately Yourself Before Submitting?

It is possible for students to check their work on AI detection, but unfortunately, an accurate detection is not always accessible.

You can use free AI checkers like ZeroGPT. However, against the detection by Turnitin, such tools do not stand the accuracy test.

For instance, it may be the case that you use a general-model AI detector and it shows 0% of AI content and then get your text flagged as 20% AI-written by university AI detector.

Meet Upcoming StudyPro AI Detector: Accurate Turnitin Alternative

As a team working for almost a decade in the EdTech industry, we know precisely what are the eternal unsolved student problems.

We have listened countless times to the pain and frustration of fruitless searching for truly working and accessible tools for studying.

That’s why we started researching what problems CAN ACTUALLY BE SOLVED. It so happened that an accurate academically trained AI detector that will be accessible for students is possible.

As for now, we propose you to stay in touch as our AI detector will be launched soon. We only pre-introduce you to the idea so that you can get among the first ones to use free benefits for the beta launch period.

StudyPro AI detector will provide:

Expertise. The expertise in the academic field brought to AI technology.
Nuance and customization. A model that understands the tone, intent, and structure of academic assignments.
Regular tool updates. StudyPro AI detector will be regularly updated to the newest AI field advancements (and support of the AI geeks team ensures that).

Conclusion

So, can professors detect AI written text? Can universities detect ChatGPT-generated text even without software? Can you safeguard yourself somehow from losing your reputation as a student over AI? The answer is yes to all questions.

How to protect yourself from being accused of unfair AI use? Take these quick takeaways as your must-have insights from this article:

Professors detect ChatGPT text in your work by using both technician and manual methods.
Technical methods include perplexity, burstiness, n-gram frequency, watermarking detection, and embedded analysis.
Most common manual methods to check your work for AI are document version history check and comparison of regular student writing style across different works.
Among common AI detection software tools, only Turnitin and Copyleaks show most credible sustainable results of AI detection. However, these tools may be unreachable or unaffordable for students. Moreover, these tools are trained on generic internet-access text instead of education-specific samples.
StudyPro is about to launch an AI detector that is customized to work specifically with academic assignments and will be free for a beta-launch period.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, professors and schools detect ChatGPT generated content with tools or manually. Most often, they analyze student work against their other assignments. Also, they may check file version history in Google docs or use tools like Turnitin to detect common patterns, making ChatGPT detectable in your writing.

Colleges detect Chat GPT with these most common detectors:

Turnitin
Copyleaks
Originality.ai
Scribbr
ZeroGPT

Yes, you can get caught using ChatGPT. AI writing tools leave detectable marks on content structure, tone of voice, and language choices. Therefore, often rewrite AI-generated text and use professional tools to detect ChatGPT in your works.

Sources:

Myers, A. (n.d.). Ai-detectors biased against Non-Native English writers. Stanford HAI. https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-detectors-biased-against-non-native-english-writers
Walters, W. H. (2023). The effectiveness of software designed to detect AI-generated writing: A comparison of 16 AI text detectors. Open Information Science, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2022-0158
Office of Online Learning. (n.d.). AI detection in Turnitin. Nashville State Community College. https://www.nscc.edu/documents/faculty-staff/online-learning/Turnitin-AI-Detection.pdf

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