Unplugging the AI police: Why SA universities are turning off detectors – Bizcommunity

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Dr Mario Landman of the Academic Centre of Excellence for The IIE and Advtech, says the primary reason for the retreat from AI detection is a lack of accuracy.
“AI detectors do not know if a machine wrote a text; instead, they measure statistical signatures like ‘perplexity’ (how predictable the language is) and ‘burstiness’ (variation in sentence rhythm). As generative models have evolved to mimic human style more effectively, these signatures have become blurred,” he says.
Independent evaluations show that while some tools claim 99% accuracy, their effectiveness drops to between 60% and 80% as soon as a student manually edits or adds “humanise” when prompting the AI.
Furthermore, newer models like Claude 3 generate natural-sounding prose that frequently evades mainstream checkers.
For many administrators, using such probabilistic tools to make life-altering disciplinary decisions is becoming an unacceptable risk to due process.
For South African institutions, the most damaging aspect of AI detection is documented bias against non-native English speakers, notes Dr Landman.
“Research has shown that detectors disproportionately flag ESL (English as a Second Language) students because their writing often uses more formal, standardised structures that the software mistakes for machine-generated patterns.”
One landmark study found a 61.3% false positive rate for TOEFL essays written by Chinese students, compared to just 5.1% for native speakers. In a multilingual country like South Africa, where English is often a second or third language, relying on these tools creates a systemic equity crisis that risks unfairly penalising students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Dr Landman says the complexity is deepened by what scholars call a “devil’s bargain” in modern academia.
“AI can automate lesson planning for lecturers and generate plausible essays for students, creating an appearance of productivity while hollowing out actual learning. This leads to the rise of ‘shallow knowledge workers’ – graduates who are proficient in prompt manipulation but deficient in critical analysis and independent reflection.
“By switching off AI checkers, universities are forced to confront this erosion of cognitive capacity. Rather than attempting to detect the machine, they are redesigning the work to make human thinking visible.”
The emerging way forward in South African higher education is a shift from “policing” to “stewardship”, says Dr Landman. He says the focus is moving toward: