Colleges That Turned Off AI Detection
38 U.S. colleges and universities have switched off AI-writing detection, declined to enable it or stopped paying for it. Each one is listed with the date and a source.
Tracker status
Last updated
Oct 13, 2026
Colleges on the list
38
Turned it back on
2
Changes this update
College details updated
38
U.S. colleges and universities have turned off AI detection
23 public and 15 private, in 20 states and Washington, D.C.
32
are confirmed still off
By a current university page or a 2025–26 report
20
disabled the detector
10 discontinued it and 8 never enabled it
20
made the decision in 2023
The year Turnitin launched its AI detector
2
turned AI detection back on
DePaul University and Wright State University
Every College That Has Turned Off AI Detection
| College | State | Type | Action | Date | Tool | Stated reason | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington State University | Washington | Public | Discontinued | Feb 11, 2026 | Turnitin | “Every false positive has the potential to lead to the submission of a case of a violation of academic integrity against a student.” | WSU Office of the Provost |
| Arcadia University | Pennsylvania | Private | Discontinued | 2026 | Turnitin | “The University did not renew the AI detection due to updated terms in the TurnItIn AI contract.” | Arcadia Help Desk |
| University of California, Berkeley | California | Public | Disabled | 2025 | Turnitin | “Based on those results, along with a growing body of outside research, UC Berkeley opted out of using Turnitin’s AI detection tool.” | Berkeley RTL |
| San Francisco State University† | California | Public | Discontinued | Jun 1, 2024 | Turnitin | “TII notified campuses that the AI detection feature would be add-on for additional cost and that the free trial period would end June 1, 2024.” | SF State Academic Technology |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | New York | Private | Disabled | May 13, 2024 | Turnitin | “Errors in classification and inconsistent classification create a false sense of being able to monitor students with little benefit to instructors.” | RIT Center for Teaching and Learning |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Illinois | Public | Disabled | Jan 12, 2024 | Turnitin | “Given the AI detection tool’s lack of consistency in its results, the campus deactivated this feature” | Illinois Answers |
| Southern Methodist University† | Texas | Private | Discontinued | Dec 31, 2023 | Turnitin | “However, as of December 31, 2023, SMU’s temporary license will expire for this specific function of Turnitin due to its extremely limited success and negative track-record.” | SMU IT Connect |
| Syracuse University | New York | Private | Discontinued | Dec 31, 2023 | Turnitin | “Given the concerns about its effectiveness, ITS elected to not license the AI content detection tool.” | Syracuse ITS |
| University of California, Irvine† | California | Public | Never enabled | Dec 15, 2023 | Turnitin | “Because of these false positives, there is a real risk that the AI detection tool could be drawing unwarranted negative attention to students who will then have a substantial burden in proving the negative about their non-use of ChatGPT.” | UCI Integrity in Academics Committee |
| Baylor University | Texas | Private | Discontinued | Dec 2023 | Turnitin | “Too much uncertainty exists, much of it related to accuracy, for the University to retain the feature at this time.” | Baylor Academic Integrity Office |
| University of Colorado Boulder | Colorado | Public | Discontinued | Dec 2023 | Turnitin | “Among the reasons informing the decision not to adopt the Turnitin integration were concerns about its accuracy and bias.” | CU Boulder OIT |
| Montclair State University | New Jersey | Public | Discontinued | Nov 14, 2023 | Turnitin | “As automated AI detection remains unreliable, Montclair has not approved or licensed any AI detection tools for evaluating student work at this time.” | Montclair Office for Faculty Excellence |
| Georgetown University | District of Columbia | Private | Disabled | Oct 2023 | Turnitin | “the harms of false positives are worse than any advantages of the tool” | Georgetown UIS |
| Saint Joseph’s University† | Pennsylvania | Private | Disabled | Fall 2023 | Turnitin | “We found that there’s a lot of false positives, and we started doing some research and some testing on it, and we came out somewhere between 50 and 75% accurate at detecting it” (Andy Starr, manager of Academic Systems) | The Hawk |
| Vanderbilt University | Tennessee | Private | Disabled | Aug 16, 2023 | Turnitin | “To date, Turnitin gives no detailed information as to how it determines if a piece of writing is AI-generated or not.” | Vanderbilt Brightspace |
| University of Alabama† | Alabama | Public | Discontinued | Aug 1, 2023 | Turnitin | “The fallibility of AI-detection tools is a large part of the decision to disable Turnitin’s AI detection report.” | UA Center for Instructional Technology |
| Boston University | Massachusetts | Private | Disabled | Jul 3, 2023 | Turnitin | “Turnitin AI score panel was disabled by BU on July 3rd, 2023 based on a range of concerns, including false positives and lack of supporting evidence for its efficacy.” | BU TechWeb |
| University of Arizona | Arizona | Public | Disabled | Jun 27, 2023 | Turnitin | “TurnItIn and other AI detectors aren’t reliably accurate.” | UArizona D2L Help |
| University of Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | Public | Disabled | Jun 2023 | Turnitin | “Use of the detection tool at this time is simply not supported by the data and does not represent a teaching practice that we can endorse or support.” | Pitt Teaching Center |
| University of California, Los Angeles | California | Public | Never enabled | Apr 4, 2023 | Turnitin | “Due to concerns and unanswered questions around this new feature, we have temporarily opted out of having it enabled” | UCLA DTS |
| Colorado State University | Colorado | Public | Never enabled | Apr 2023 | Turnitin | “Our campus needs more preparation, information, and education before rolling out a tool with such a potential impact on our courses, student learning, and academic misconduct investigations.” | CSU TILT |
| University of Michigan-Dearborn | Michigan | Public | Never enabled | Apr 2023 | Turnitin | “Like the technology it was designed to catch, the AI-detection software was being rolled out quickly and would inevitably have flaws.” | UM-Dearborn News |
| American University† | District of Columbia | Private | Disabled | 2023 | Turnitin | — | The Eagle |
| Michigan State University | Michigan | Public | Disabled | 2023 | Turnitin | — | MSU D2L Help |
| Northwestern University | Illinois | Private | Disabled | 2023 | Turnitin | — | Inside Higher Ed |
| University of Texas at Austin | Texas | Public | Disabled | 2023 | Not stated | “risks posed to students’ intellectual property and privacy rights” | UT Austin Provost |
| Appalachian State University | North Carolina | Public | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | “This decision to disable this feature was not made lightly but the legitimate concerns surrounding AI-detection in general and TII’s AI-detection specifically, present some issues in rolling this out for use by our students, staff, and faculty.” | App State Academic Technologies |
| Barnard College | New York | Private | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | “there are serious and acknowledged concerns about bias and reliability, including the risk for false positives with this tool.” | Barnard ATLIS |
| Iowa State University | Iowa | Public | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | “Turnitin’s AI writing detection tool has been disabled upon request to allow additional testing and verification.” | Iowa State CELT |
| James Madison University | Virginia | Public | Discontinued | Not published | Turnitin | “The company later removed the feature from our subscription.” | JMU Libraries |
| Johns Hopkins University | Maryland | Private | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | “Johns Hopkins disabled Turnitin’s AI detection software due to reports of false positives and ongoing fears of falsely accusing students of academic misconduct.” | Teaching at JHU |
| New York University | New York | Private | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | “It should be noted that AI writing detection tools are unreliable and their use is cautioned.” | NYU Libraries |
| Portland State University | Oregon | Public | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | — | PSU Office of Academic Innovation |
| University of Iowa | Iowa | Public | Never enabled | Not published | Turnitin | “Due to inconsistencies in outcomes, this AI detection program will not be made available.” | Iowa ITS |
| University of Texas at Arlington | Texas | Public | Never enabled | Not published | Turnitin | “At this time, UTA leadership has elected not to enable AI-Writing detection due to the potential for false positives.” | UTA Canvas Support |
| University of Washington | Washington | Public | Never enabled | Not published | Turnitin SimCheck | “This false positive rate has the potential to inaccurately call into question the submissions of thousands of students.” | UW Information Technology |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | Wisconsin | Public | Never enabled | Not published | Turnitin | — | UW-Madison KnowledgeBase |
| Yale University | Connecticut | Private | Disabled | Not published | Turnitin | — | Yale Poorvu Center |
† Based on a 2023 or 2024 announcement. We found no later statement from the college.
Stated reasons are quoted word for word from the linked source. A dash means the source gives no reason in its own words.
AI Detection Decisions by Action, Year and State
How they turned it off
- Disabled20
- Discontinued10
- Never enabled8
When they decided
- 202320
- 20243
- 20251
- 20262
- Date not published12
States with the most
- California4
- New York4
- Texas4
- Pennsylvania3
- All other states and D.C.23
Colleges That Turned AI Detection Back On
2 colleges turned AI detection off and later turned it back on. They are not included in the count above.
| College | State | Turned off | Turned back on | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DePaul University | Illinois | Sep 28, 2023 | Jan 2024 | DePaul Teaching Commons |
| Wright State University | Ohio | Jan 2024 | Nov 1, 2024 | Wright State Faculty Senate |
How We Maintain This List
We include a college when it announces that it has disabled, declined or discontinued AI detection (largely for writing, i.e. essays). We remove it from the list if it turns AI detection back on.
Each entry is confirmed via the college’s own page or a news report.
Update Log
Oct 13, 2026
Updated details for Iowa State University.
Oct 9, 2026
Added the detection tool and each college’s stated reason. Corrected UC Berkeley to Disabled in 2025 and updated 2 source links.
Oct 8, 2026
Replaced the University of Washington source with the university’s own page.
Oct 7, 2026
Published the first version with 38 colleges.
How We Track AI Detection Decisions
What Counts as “Turned Off” AI Detection
A college is included when the entire institution has disabled an AI-writing detector, decided not to enable one, or stopped paying for one. Nearly every entry on our list involves Turnitin’s AI writing detection, which launched in April 2023.
Actions
Disabled means the detector was being used and the college switched it off. Never enabled means the college opted out or does not license the feature. Discontinued means the college let the license or free preview end, or cancelled it.
What Is Not Included
Guidance that only discourages AI detectors is not counted. Neither are decisions by a single school, department or instructor, student petitions, or rules that a detector score cannot be the only evidence of misconduct.
Dates
The date is the day, month or year the decision took effect. “Not published” means the college confirms the detector is off but did not say when the decision was made.
Sources
Every entry links to the college’s own announcement where one exists. Otherwise it links to a student newspaper or a news report.