How to detect AI in Google Docs

Many teachers work with student writing directly in Google docs. Luckily, there's an easy way to check for AI writing directly within Google Docs. All it takes is one click!

AI Detection Chrome Extension

Pangram Labs publishes a chrome extension that makes it easy to check for AI. The first step is to download the Chrome extension. Visit the Chrome Web Store and search for "Pangram AI Detection." Follow the setup instructions to sign in or make an account. Once you've done that, you can check any Google doc for AI writing.

Scan Document for AI

Once you've downloaded the Chrome extension, go to Google Docs and open a document. You should see a button in the top right corner of the Google Doc that says "Scan Document for AI". If you click that, Pangram will scan the entire document and return an analysis in a pop-up in the bottom right corner.

The button to scan for AI is in the top right corner, left of the share and comment buttons.

To see more details, click "Full Analysis" and you will be brought to the Pangram dashboard to see section-by-section AI analysis, phrase highlights, and more.

To share the result, click "Share" in the bottom right corner to get a result that can be viewed by anyone with the link.

The scan result shows up in a pop-up in the bottom right corner.

Copy text and scan clipboard for AI

If you just want to check a certain section, you can select some text, copy it (⌘+C or Ctrl+C), click the Pangram extension in the top right corner of your browser, and click "Scan Clipboard for AI." This will only scan the selected section of text.

To scan the clipboard, click into the extension menu to the right of the URL bar.

Use the Pangram Dashboard

The Pangram dashboard also natively handles text and .docx. files. Either copy the document or export it as a .docx: File -> Download -> Microsoft Word (.docx). Once you've done that, visit the Pangram dashboard, click File Upload, and then drag and drop the file. Click "Check for AI" to scan the document for AI writing.

Look at the version history

Google Docs automatically saves the version history of a document. As it is written, Google Docs will periodically save snapshots, each with a timestamp indicating when the snapshot was taken. This is a good way to examine the writing process, and an additional tool when dealing with a plagiarism case. If it looks like a large portion of the text just appeared

The version history of a document that was pasted in without edits will look like this.