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Plagiarism & Cheating · Posted by Elise Charron ·

AI-Generated Text and Plagiarism – Are These Even the Same Problem?

13

Been thinking about this since our school updated its academic integrity language this term. The new wording treats AI-generated content and plagiarism as the same category – both are ‘submitting work that is not your own.’ I understand the equivalence but it’s also not quite right.

Plagiarism involves taking someone else’s specific work. AI generation is different – no one specific source, no author being stolen from. Are these really the same problem, or are we forcing old language onto a new issue?

5 replies

5 Replies

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Kyle Hebert

they're both a misrepresentation problem. the student is representing work as their own that isn't. the mechanism differs but the core dishonesty is the same. the policy language doesn't need to distinguish them if the rule is simply 'submit your own work and be able to account for it.'

7
Nadia Brosseau

they're different enough to warrant separate treatment. plagiarism has a victim - the author whose work was taken. AI generation doesn't. the ethical wrong in plagiarism is intellectual theft plus misrepresentation. AI generation is only the misrepresentation. treating them identically flattens a real distinction.

9
Troy Landry

practically they're the same problem for me as a teacher: did this student do the intellectual work I assigned? copied from a source or generated by AI, my assessment is compromised in the same way. the detection methods differ and the conversations differ, but the outcome for the classroom is the same.

5
Ashley Lemieux

been using a tool that handles both now - Proofademic added plagiarism checking to their AI detector. running both on the same submission in one pass has changed my workflow. doesn't resolve the definitional question you're raising but operationally it's been useful to not switch between tools.

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Steve Theriault

the definition question matters for policy but maybe not for day-to-day practice. what I care about: did this student do the thinking I assigned? AI or plagiarism or both, the answer is yes or no. the policy can be refined over time. the classroom question is immediate.