How to Prove You Didn’t Use ChatGPT: One Simple Trick to Avoid ChatGPT Plagiarism Accusations

ChatGPT plagiarism accusations abound nowadays but what if you’re innocent? If your teacher and your boss accuses you of using ChatGPT to do the work, you’d think there isn’t much to do to prove them otherwise, since it’s almost impossible in some cases to tell the difference from a human-written  or an AI-generated text.

Since most of the tools that claim to detect ChatGPT plagiarism actually, uhmm, suck, many people have been accused of using ChatGPT in their essays. 

ChatGPT plagiarism detection apps

Apps like Turnitin might be used by thousands of teachers nowadays but they are not accurate and can’t detect ChatGPT as well as they claim. In a Washington Post investigation, the editors proved that Turnitin can make a false plagiarism accusation and land a student in hot water.

When it comes to academia or essay writing, indeed, that’s where ChatGPT shines, since this generative AI was trained using millions of human-made essays and can copy that style effortlessly. Since ChatGPT was trained using essays, it excels at writing essays, which means an app that claims to detect AI writing will struggle.  Still, if you use quotes in your essay, plagiarism detection software can flag your work as being plagiarized, because it can’t really understand the content of your work and will think you copied from the source.

Some people say you should use typos to pass plagiarism checks, since AI doesn’t really make typos. That’s true but still, it’s not a good solution. No one wants people to think their grammar sucks and no self-respecting student or professional would submit an essay laden with typos.

So, what should you do to prove you didn’t use ChatGPT?

This one small trick comes from Slashgear and it’s simply genius: use Version History to prove you did the work. We’ll tell you all about it in a minute but first let’s see how a ChatGPT plagiarism app actually works / doesn’t work.

Just like math teachers insist you write out the full steps of solving a problem, you can do the same thing to prove you wrote the essay, not ChatGPT.

All you need to do is enable the Version History function in your writing software of choice. This way, each and every modification you do to your text or essay will be saved, and whoever accused you of ChatGPT plagiarism can simply see exactly how you wrote and edited the text you submitted. 

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Most people who use ChatGPT simply copy and paste large paragraphs of texts but people actually writing something will do it word by word, writing typos, deleting and so on. Since Version History saves those actions, your teacher / boss / supervisor can see that you, and not ChatGPT, wrote that.

So, how do you disprove an unfair ChatGPT plagiarism accusation? It’s easy: by gathering proof.

How to prove you didn’t use ChatGPT in Google Docs

This trick only works if you can have a conversation with the person accusing you, not for an automated plagiarism detection software. Still, if you can appeal your plagiarism accusation and deal with a person, just do this:

Open your document in Google Docs.

Then go to File, and select the “Version history” option.

When you click that, you can see Version History. You can then show it to whoever accused you by taking a few screenshots to prove your innocence.

How to prove you didn’t use ChatGPT in Microsoft Word

If you use Word to do your writing, you do the same thing – and Word saves about half a million edits, so you have plenty of proof.

Just open your document or essay in Word, then click the down arrow next to the file name at the top. There, select Version History.

What do you think, can this tip help you prove you did not use ChatGPT in your work? Do you have another way to avoid this hassle?

With the proliferation of AI writing tools and detecting AI plagiarism apps to counteract those tools, innocent people have plenty of headaches coming their way.