The rise of AI writing tools like ChatGPT has changed how research is drafted — and it has created a new worry for postgraduate students: if I use AI to help write my thesis, will it get caught? For medical PG, DNB and PhD candidates working to KUHS and university guidelines, the answer matters a great deal. Here is a clear, honest explanation.
Plagiarism checking and AI detection are two different things
This is the single most important point, and it confuses almost everyone.
- A similarity check (what Drillbit and Turnitin are best known for) compares your text against billions of published papers, journals and web pages, then reports the percentage of matching text. This is what produces your similarity score and the Level 0–3 result your university cares about.
- AI detection is a separate feature that tries to estimate the probability that a passage was generated by an AI model, based on writing patterns — not on matching it to a source.
So a paragraph written entirely by ChatGPT might show a low similarity score (because the AI generated "original" wording) while still being flagged by a separate AI-detection pass. The two results are independent.
Does Drillbit detect AI content?
Drillbit — the UGC-approved tool empanelled with AICTE and INFLIBNET — has added AI-content detection alongside its core similarity engine, as Turnitin and other major checkers have done since 2023. These detectors look at how "predictable" the writing is and return an estimated AI-generated percentage.
A word of caution that students should take seriously: AI detectors are not perfect. They can produce false positives — sometimes flagging genuine human writing, especially text written by non-native English speakers or text that is heavily formal and structured (which medical writing often is). For this reason, most universities treat AI-detection results as a signal for review, not as automatic proof of misconduct.
What this means for your thesis
- A clean similarity score is still essential. Whatever else changes, your university's plagiarism limit (for KUHS and most Indian universities, the UGC framework where similarity up to 10% is acceptable) remains the formal requirement. Get a proper Drillbit report before you submit.
- Do not paste AI text in and assume it's safe. Even when similarity is low, AI-generated passages often contain fabricated references — citations to papers that do not exist. In a medical thesis, that is a serious credibility problem that examiners do catch.
- Use AI as an assistant, not an author. Brainstorming, restructuring your own sentences, or checking grammar is very different from generating content you present as your own research. Your data, analysis and conclusions must be genuinely yours.
- Check your university's latest circular. Policies on AI use are being written right now and vary between universities. When in doubt, disclose your use of AI tools.
How we help
At PG Students (Sajan Thesis Works), we provide an official Drillbit similarity report so you know exactly where your thesis stands before submission — and we offer expert guidance on revising flagged sections to bring your similarity score within your university's limits, the legitimate way. We do not write theses; we make sure the work you have done is presented to standard and passes verification with confidence.
Have a draft you're unsure about? Send it to us for a Drillbit check and we'll tell you exactly where you stand.