Does SafeAssign, the Blackboard plagiarism tool, actually detect AI writing, or is it purely a traditional plagiarism matcher?
I know SafeAssign predates the current wave of AI detection tools, originally built just for catching copied text against existing sources. Curious if it’s been updated to add AI detection or if schools using it are relying on something else entirely for that concern.
SafeAssign was originally built purely for plagiarism matching, you’re right about that history. It has had some updates over the years but it’s generally considered less robust for AI-specific detection compared to tools built from the ground up for that purpose.
If your school uses SafeAssign as its primary tool, it’s worth asking directly whether they’ve added a supplementary AI detection process, since SafeAssign alone wasn’t designed with that as the primary goal.
From an academic integrity standpoint, schools relying solely on an older plagiarism tool without a modern AI detection layer may be under-equipped for current concerns, which is honestly a policy gap worth raising if it affects you directly.
Anecdotally some instructors who use SafeAssign for plagiarism also separately run things through something AI-specific on their own, since they’re aware of the gap you’re describing. It’s not always a coordinated institutional decision.
worth checking if your school’s policy explicitly names which tool covers AI detection specifically, separate from whatever covers plagiarism. those might genuinely be two different systems even within the same school.