How Can Teachers Detect AI?

Teachers detect AI-generated work by combining manual analysis and AI detection tools. Manually, they look for unnatural phrasing, repetitive patterns, inconsistent tone, and generic content that lacks personal voice or real-world nuance. These clues often stand out as different from typical student writing.

Automated AI detectors analyze text for specific patterns, such as uniform sentence structure, statistical word choices, and low variation (called perplexity and burstiness). Popular tools include Turnitin’s AI Text Verifier, GPTZero, Copyleaks, and Originality.AI, which provide scores indicating the likelihood of AI involvement based on writing style and content context.

Many teachers also examine a student’s writing history or editing timeline (if available) to see how the work evolved, which helps confirm authenticity. However, detection is not foolproof, and false positives can occur, especially with non-native English speakers.