Several high-profile universities decided to disable Turnitin's AI writing detection tool due to concerns about its accuracy and potential for falsely accusing students of academic dishonesty.

Even with Turnitin's claimed 1 percent false positive rate, large universities were concerned that they may see hundreds of papers incorrectly flagged as AI-generated. Some universities were wary of sharing student data with third-party AI detection services, including Turnitin.

Major institutions that disabled Turnitin's AI detector include Vanderbilt University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University and the University of Texas at Austin. 

Vanderbilt said it was disabling the detector "in the pursuit of the best interests of our students and faculty" largely as Turnitin refused to provide any insight into how it's product works.

Instead of relying on AI detection tools, universities are encouraging faculty to communicate clearly with students about AI usage policies, redesign assignments to make AI use less feasible, and focus on teaching students how to use AI responsibly rather than trying to catch cheaters.

The spate of rejections by universities reflects the belief that AI writing detection software is not sufficiently reliable or effective for academic use.