With the advent of LLMs, a flood of AI-generated content is becoming an issue. Many programs help detect this content due to how it gets flagged in plagiarism checkers, which can devalue your posts. Let’s go over the basics of AI plagiarism, what programs are best to detect it, and how you can avoid it while still using various tools.

But first, the basics:

Is Using AI Plagiarism?

AI usage can be plagiarism. This is because it often uses datasets without proper attribution and often draws from sources with insufficient changes (depending on the model). Using AI can also make your content similar to that of other users since they will also be drawing from the same program, causing similarities in outputs.

It’s also worth noting that there are many programs that people may not consider “AI” that work similarly to AI. Grammarly is widely used, but it has often been flagged as AI in certain situations due to a similar mode of operation. However, that doesn’t mean all Grammarly functions will be flagged.

The underlying assumptions about language that come with AI are similar to those Grammarly often uses in their “blue underlined text”. Using it for spell-check is fine but be cautious when it shortens sentences that may appear fine. A study by AI researchers showed that heavy editing with Grammarly can be flagged as AI. It’s best to use it lightly when it comes to the rephrasing feature.

So, is using Grammarly AI plagiarism? No. It merely gets flagged by certain checkers. This is why the solutions can pose new issues as well.

Another issue is the ethics of the matter. This is becoming an increasingly pertinent topic as the classroom implications of AI plagiarism and fabrication become clear. Numerous institutions are flagging AI content and treating them as harsh breaches of conduct.

That said, many editors and academics believe that AI editing is perfectly fine. This is different from AI plagiarism in that it uses AI to improve your original text. It’s also fine to rewrite AI text and find valid sources for it after editing. There’s a grey area with AI usage which is why the ethics of LLMs are a complex topic.

Content Detection Programs

Some of the best AI content detectors are fairly adept at catching LLMs in action and saving time. Here are some of the top ones we came across, as tested by other researchers and content creators:

• GPTZero: Since inventing AI detection, GPTZero has incorporated the latest research for the detection of AI-written content. It employs a number of modes such as ChatGPT, GPT4, Google-Gemini, LLaMa, and new AI models, while also researching the sources they use in their outputs.
• ZeroGPT: This one is the easiest to use. You can log into the website and enter your text for checks and copy your content into the text box so it can detect plagiarism. It will highlight your sentences and let you know what does and does not make the cut.
• Originality.ai: Extensions like “Originally AI” for Chrome can help you spot AI text and improve the overall tone of your written content.

• QuillBot: Quillbot offers a series of different tools that can help you rewrite your work. Part of these is an AI content detector that will spot plagiarism. Quillbot is widely used in universities and institutions and the teams behind it are improving the AI-detection features to match new standards.

The AI and plagiarism checker in Grammarly is also a valid route but it can be less consistent than the ones cited above. It may improve in the future, but the following software tools are more advanced at the moment.

AI Plagiarism Checkers: Do They Work?

Many researchers believe AI plagiarism checkers have improved. Among the new models, there is a high rate of detection. This doesn’t come without its issues but they are handy. There is still a problem with identifying false positives, with many writers (particularly students) getting flagged without ever using an AI tool of any sort.

That said, it’s better to check external sources for AI-based writing for the reasons we outlined above. With the growth of AI, it’s all the more important to not just be flagged by others who will scan your text but also to not put up duplicate content.

Avoiding AI Plagiarism

As stated earlier, light editing on an original work is the best way to go. If you have an AI output, you should rephrase it in a more natural writing style. Consistency of tone is also important as people tend to use AI in chunks, which can cause the tone of the content to seem all over the place.

Using ChatGPT is plagiarism if you do not edit anything yourself but using it to edit your original work is not. Similarly, if you copy a website with AI, that’s going a major ethical violation. Even using an AI plagiarism remover without citing the original source won’t save you in that scenario.

From our personal experience, we’ve run tests with fully AI-written content and the results have not been as powerful as our human-written work. Putting in the extra effort and giving your work your own distinct touch can be worth it.

Furthermore, regardless of whether you generate text with a tool, if you want to perform better on Google, you will need original content. If everyone uses AI writing tools and large language models the same way, it will homogenise your work and make search engines see it as uninspired.