Academics' perceptions of ChatGPT-generated written outputs: A practical application of Turing’s Imitation Game

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), is evolving quickly and having a significant impact on the higher education sector. Although the impact of ChatGPT on academic integrity processes is a key concern, little is known about whether academics can reliably recognise texts that have been generated by AI. This qualitative study applies Turing’s Imitation Game to investigate 16 education academics’ perceptions of two pairs of texts written by either ChatGPT or a human. Pairs of texts, written in response to the same task, were used as the stimulus for interviews that probed academics’ perceptions of text authorship and the textual features that were important in their decision-making. Results indicated academics were only able to identify AI-generated texts half of the time, highlighting the sophistication of contemporary generative AI technology. Academics perceived the following categories as important for their decision-making: voice, word usage, structure, task achievement and flow. All five categories of decision-making were variously used to rationalise both accurate and inaccurate decisions about text authorship. The implications of these results are discussed with a particular focus on what strategies can be applied to support academics more effectively as they manage the ongoing challenge of AI in higher education. Implications for practice or policy: Experienced academics may be unable to distinguish between texts written by contemporary generative AI technology and humans. Academics are uncertain about the current capabilities of generative AI and need support in redesigning assessments that succeed in providing robust evidence of student achievement of learning outcomes. Institutions must assess the adequacy of their assessment designs, AI use policies, and AI-related procedures to enhance students’ capacity for effective and ethical use of generative AI technology.