ChatGPT AND PLAGIARISM: A THREAT TO ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract ChatGPT emerged as one of the powerful tools that generates human-like texts and responses. The tool remains a marvel extension of artificial intelligence, but it induced worry and raised the concerns of academicians and teachers as it is being used by students to mimic original content leading to plagiarism. The present study investigates the main reasons for using ChatGPT to plagiarize academic content. It also explores the potential risks for ChatGPT use in academic settings and its effect on integrity. The research was based on a quantitative research method where questionnaires and interviews were employed as main research tools, involving a large scale of university students. The findings divulged that plagiarism is committed due to many reasons but chiefly by virtue of time limitation, lack of knowledge and understanding, and language barriers.