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Bethan Staton in London

Apr 03 2023

Universities express doubt over tool to detect AI-powered plagiarism

The makers of popular plagiarism detection software are launching a tool that also detects if essays are created using artificial intelligence chatbots, triggering a debate among universities over whether to use the new system to identify student cheating.

Turnitin, which is already used by more than 10,000 educational institutions worldwide, is launching a service on Tuesday that it said can identify AI-generated text with 98 per cent confidence. OpenAI, makers of popular ChatGPT services, has said its plagiarism detection system works only 26 per cent of the time.

“Educators told us that being able to accurately detect AI written text is their first priority right now,” said Turnitin chief executive Chris Caren. “They need to be able to detect AI with very high certainty to assess the authenticity of a student’s work and determine how to best engage with them.”

The launch has proved contentious. Some institutions, including Cambridge and other members of the Russell Group, the body that represents leading UK universities, have said they will opt-out of the new service, according to people familiar with the decision.

Universities are worried the tool may falsely accuse students of cheating, involves handing student data to a private company and prevents people from experimenting with new technologies such as generative AI.

“The concerns have been widely held,” one person familiar with its discussions said. The Russell Group declined to comment.

Those concerns have led the UCISA, the UK membership body supporting technology in education, to work with Turnitin to ensure universities had the option to opt-out of the feature temporarily.

C. Edward Watson, associate vice-president for curricular and pedagogical innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said there was also a “dubiousness” over the detection system given rapid developments in AI. “There’s a lot of disbelief that it can do the job well,” he said.

The popularity of ChatGPT, a system created by Microsoft-backed company OpenAI that can form arguments and write convincing swaths of text, has led to widespread concern that students will use the software to cheat on written assignments.

That has led to a debate among academics, higher education consultants and cognitive scientists across the world over how universities might develop new modes of assessment in response to the threat to academic integrity posed by AI.

Deborah Green, chief executive of UCISA, said she was concerned that Turnitin was launching its AI detection system with little warning to students as they prepared coursework and exams this summer.

While universities broadly welcomed the new tool they needed time to assess it, she added. “We’ve had no opportunity to test it, so we simply don’t know about what it does and doesn’t do.”

Charles Knight, assistant director at consultancy Advance HE, said lecturers were concerned that they would have no way to investigate why essays had been flagged as being written by AI.

In a single university an error rate of 1 per cent would mean hundreds of students wrongly accused of cheating, he added, with little recourse to appeal.

“It’s a black box,” he said. “We’ve got no idea what those results mean and we aren’t able to have a look at how the software came to those conclusions.”

Turnitin did not immediately respond to a request for comment to the concerns raised about the AI detection tool. But the company said in a statement about the tool’s launch that the technology had been “in development for years” and provided resources to “help the education community navigate and manage [it]”.

Written by Bethan Staton in London · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

Apr 02 2023

Midlands universities create £250mn tech investment vehicle

Eight universities in the Midlands have launched a £250mn investment vehicle to fund companies “spun out” from research, as the UK seeks to harness advances in science and technology to boost regional growth.

Midlands Innovation, a group of institutions including Loughborough university, the University of Birmingham and the University of Warwick, on Monday launched Midlands Mindforge, with the aim of providing investment and support to early-stage technology businesses in the region.

The launch reflects a shift among universities towards commercialisation of research and regional economy strategy, as the government turns to the sector as a growth engine driving levelling-up and boosting productivity.

In last month’s Budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that he would create 12 low-tax “investment zones” focused around universities, which would each receive £80mn in the form of tax incentives and investment over five years.

Mindforge takes a cue from similar university investment vehicles, such as Northern Gritstone, which was created by the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. It has so far raised £215mn towards building what it hopes will become a northern innovation hub.

Professor Trevor McMillan, chair of the Midlands Innovation board and vice-chancellor of Keele University, a co-founder, said the vehicle would be a “catalyst for building groundbreaking businesses”, creating highly skilled jobs and boosting growth.

Loughborough university
Loughborough university. The launch reflects a shift among institutions towards commercialisation of research and regional economy strategy © A.P.S (UK)/Alamy

“By cultivating an environment where postgraduate students and researchers with commercial ideas can benefit from early access to investment, we can create opportunities for our people, place and partnership to flourish,” McMillan said.

The vehicle will target companies in areas such as AI and clean technology based on university-level research, providing funding at crucial early stages of their development when they may be overlooked by conventional investors.

It plans to raise £250mn from corporate partners, institutional investors and individuals. The Midlands currently accounts for 15 per cent of high growth SME businesses but attracts 5 per cent of investment value, it said.

George Freeman, minister for science, said there was an “urgent” need to commercialise UK science and technology. “As we in government increase UK public R&D to a record £20bn a year, the key is private finance backing spinouts and scale-ups,” he said.

Henry Whorwood, analyst at consultancy Beauhurst, said the investment vehicles could play an important role in improving access to capital, a problem for nascent companies, especially in Britain’s regions.

However, he added, a “cosy” relationship with funding vehicles could give universities more power over which companies received funding and the conditions academic institutions placed on start-up founders.

The work of investment vehicles such as Mindforge would be separate but complementary to the government’s policy of investment zones, Whorwood added. The former help companies get started by offering them capital, while investment zones give companies incentives to stay in regions after they set up.

“They are two quite different levers that could have the same outcomes.”

West Midlands mayor Andy Street said the investment vehicle would support his mission of driving regional recovery and creating high-quality jobs and sustainable economic growth.

Written by Bethan Staton in London · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

Mar 08 2023

University research ‘spinouts’ to be reviewed by UK government

The government is set to review how universities “spin out” companies from academic research, as it looks for ways to boost innovation in the UK economy.

The Treasury will on Thursday establish a committee to focus on research commercialisation, examining issues including the size of equity stakes that universities retain, said people familiar with the discussions.

The review follows an increase in the number of companies created from academic research, with universities investing millions annually into activities such as patenting, attracting investors and providing laboratory space for nascent start-ups.

University leaders say the work is essential in turning academic work into viable businesses and projects.

Critics say the UK is underperforming on spinout success, with some entrepreneurs arguing universities impose bureaucratic demands and excessive equity stakes that inhibit growth.

According to Beauhurst, a consultancy, equity investment in spinouts increased from £405mn to £2.54bn in the decade to 2021, but they make up just 3 per cent of the UK’s high-growth companies.

It found universities retain an average equity stake of 24 per cent in spinout companies, although the amount varies.

Nathan Benaich, partner at Air Street Capital, a venture capital funder, said universities should retain smaller stakes in companies and called for the government to legislate for standard terms.

However, a university leader warned against stricter rules, arguing it would impose an “oversimplified solution to a complex problem”.

The review will be chaired by University of Oxford vice-chancellor Irene Tracey and Andrew Williamson, managing partner of funding vehicle Cambridge Innovation Capital, said one person familiar with the plans.

The government did not respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by George Parker

Written by Bethan Staton in London · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

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