‘Robo-cheating’ fiasco saw Australian Catholic University students falsely accused of using AI – by an unreliable AI tool
An Australian university used AI to accuse students of using AI to cheat in assignments, but now admits its detection tool was critically flawed. Not good enough, say victims.
Concerns are growing about the reliability of widely used AI detection tools, with some students from one of Australia’s biggest universities wrongly accused of cheating.
Australian Catholic University (ACU) admitted it used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify students who had themselves relied on AI technology when submitting assignments.
The process has been dubbed “robo-cheating” by some students, who say they were accused without any justification and had to endure a drawn-out process that took months to clear them of wrongdoing.
The university stopped using the AI detection tool Turnitin Indicator in March due to issues with its reliability.
However, ACU continues to use Turnitin Similarity Reports.
According to reports from the ABC, emails were sent to final-year nursing students, among others, citing an “academic integrity concern” and accusing them of using AI.
One student said it took six months for her to be cleared, in a process that was time-consuming and stressful. The student said the process held up her final graduation and jeopardised future academic offers.
ACU has acknowledged that about half of its 6000 academic misconduct cases from last year involved the use of AI, including assignments generated by AI, AI-produced references and the use of AI tools to paraphrase or translate content.
About a quarter of referrals were dismissed following investigation. Any case where Turnitin’s AI detection tool was the sole evidence was dismissed immediately.
But students were frustrated that the onus was on them to prove their innocence throughout what they believed to be a flawed process resulting in unwarranted accusations.
The Turnitin AI Indicator was abandoned by the university due to its limited reliability as well as “prevalence of false negatives and reliance on the detection percentage” and “lack of transparency to students who cannot view the report”.
ACU deputy vice-chancellor Tania Broadley told News Corp: “We acknowledge that during the early stages of adapting to the rapid adoption of AI, investigations were not always as timely as they should have been, and we deeply regret the impact this had on some students.
“In the past 12 months, ACU has made significant improvements to the way it manages academic misconduct cases, particularly those involving AI.
“In 2025, ACU has implemented enhanced systems and processes which have improved investigation timelines.”
A number of other universities have also stopped using the program.
These include Curtin University, which will stop using the Turnitin Indicator tool from the start of 2026. Its website states that the “change is about fostering trust and clarity within a modern academic culture and continuously improving our assessments to ensure they are secure, fair, relevant and future-ready”.
In 2023, Swinburne University lecturer Benjamen Gussen also raised concerns about exam supervision and the institution’s high Turnitin cheating software scores, and claimed he was forced to resign as a result. This was denied by the university.
Have you been wrongly accused of using AI? Leave a comment or email us at education@news.com.au
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Originally published as ‘Robo-cheating’ fiasco saw Australian Catholic University students falsely accused of using AI – by an unreliable AI tool
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