Turnitin plans to use student submissions for training its own AI tools
Turnitin has updated its user agreement to seek consent from students and educators for using their submitted work to train artificial-intelligence models.
Turnitin, known for anti-plagiarism software since the 1990s, disclosed revisions to its end-user license that would permit the company to employ student and teacher submissions for improving or creating AI products. The firm claims the data would be aggregated, anonymized and not sold, but the FAQ’s broad wording has sparked alarm among academics who fear the material could be repurposed for other AI services. Librarians such as Ian Linkletter and professors like Charlotte Lydia Riley have voiced concerns about consent and privacy, noting that some institutions are already ending contracts with Turnitin.
The company has temporarily halted implementation of the new agreement until 2027 to address stakeholder questions. Meanwhile, a recent Rand Corporation survey shows a majority of students use AI for homework, highlighting the tension between AI-assisted learning and detection tools. Turnitin maintains that its AI detection reports are decision-support tools and that final judgments rest with educators.
Why it matters
Student work could become a source of training data for AI, raising privacy and consent issues for millions of learners.
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