In the past few years, AI has changed everything and as a teacher, you need to keep up to date with the tools that your students are using to do their schoolwork.
AI detection tools are important for teachers but which AI detectors are teachers using?
Let’s find out.
Why Do Teachers Need An AI Detector?
Since ChatGPT was launched and became wildly popular in late 2022, people have been using the website for many writing tasks such as writing emails, creating social media content and even creating contracts.
Students have also been using the website to do their homework, assignments and any work that involves writing.
This is obviously a big problem for teachers as it is a complete waste of time to correct student work that was done by an AI tool.
That’s why we created Winston AI, an AI detection tool with a detection rate of 99.98%. You can try it out here.
How Do AI Detectors Work?
Before I tell you about which AI detectors you should use as a teacher, you might be wondering how these AI detection tools work.
First, let’s understand how the AI tool generates the text.
You see, the AI tool isn’t really aware of what it is writing. It is just predicting the next word in the sentence.
Let me give you an example:
She was so tired that she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the ____.
So the AI tool will ask all of its training data, what word would most likely come next based on the context and it will give the answer “pillow”.
That is a simple example but you get the idea.
AI detection tools can analyze a text and predict whether it was likely written by an AI tool, as the AI text will likely follow the most common patterns of text.
People often do follow patterns of speech but we also tend to go haywire and use words like haywire!
Ok, I think we are ready to learn about the best AI Detectors for Teachers.
Winston AI – The Most Accurate AI Detector
Winston AI is the best AI tool to check if your students are using AI tools like ChatGPT.
I have tested it hundreds and hundreds of times with AI content I have generated with ChatGPT and it has been correct every single time.
The thing about using these tools is that you don’t need any doubt to creep into your mind about whether they work or not. There are many free tools you can use online but they are not updated to the latest models which means they are not worth using. Students are aware of AI developments and can access the best and most recent versions of AI tools. Winston AI also has a very popular plagiarism checker that provides detailed interactive reports you can share.
Winston AI is easy to use, all you need to do is sign up, copy your text into our app and scan it.
You then receive a results page which will give you an answer with a prediction on whether the text was AI-generated or written by a human.
You can also use our Chrome extension if you want to directly test your students’ work around the internet like on Google Docs or any other platform. You can find it in the Chrome Extension store here.
Turnitin
Turnitin is a plagiarism software company that also has an AI detection tool. Their plagiarism detection tool has been around for a long time and has a large database they can use to compare your students’ work against.
Plagiarism is different to AI detection as plagiarism is when people directly copy from another text but AI detection checks if your text was created by an AI tool.
You need both a plagiarism tool and AI detection software nowadays if you want to maintain academic integrity and want to make sure your student’s work is original.
Turnitin is different to many of the other AI detection tools as it is only available to education institutions so you will probably be asked to use Turnitin if your school uses it but if your school does not have an AI policy then you will have to either ask your higher-ups or use a tool that is easy to use like Winston AI.
Scribbr
Scribbr is another online platform where you can get proofreading services, plagiarism checks, citations generated and AI Detection.
Their AI Dection tool works well and both teachers and students seem to find their platform valuable. Certainly, work checking out if you need a variety or tools for your work as a teacher.
Copyleaks
Copyleaks is another online tool that teachers can use to check for plagiarism and if their students used AI.
The platform is easy to use and the plagiarism works well. I also tested the AI Detection tool and it works with basic AI texts. The problem is that there are many people getting better at prompting AI tools and even using tools to change the output of AI so that it bypasses detection.
Copyleaks works well for text copied straight from ChatGPT but not for students who are more advanced and really know a lot about using AI.
GPTZero
Many teachers are also using an AI Checker called GPTZero. This tool also can work well but in my testing, it was not as accurate as Winston AI.
The tool also has Chrome Extensions and some cool tools like an AI writing coach and an integration with Google Classroom
An AI Detector should be One Part of your Teaching Toolkit
You should know that an AI detector should be only one part of how you check if students are using AI.
Think about the following when assessing if a student use AI to help them with their work:
- Is the vocabulary too advanced for their reading level?
- Does the style vary from the student’s handwritten work?
- Is there a lot of generic vocabulary in the text?
- Does the text formatting look almost too perfect(eg each paragraph has 2 sentences)?
- The quality of the writing suddenly changes
None of these tests are exact but along with using an AI detection tool like Winston AI, you should get a clear idea of whether the student used AI.
Always talk to the student first and ask them if they are using AI to help them with their work. We need to embrace technology and we now live in a world where AI exists and is free to use.
Other Ways AI can help Teachers
As a teacher myself I know that that AI can be super helpful for teachers. You can use tools like Brisk AI to help with the following tasks:
- Creating materials
- Giving student feedback
- Grading student work
- Create quizzes
