{"689757":{"#nid":"689757","#data":{"type":"news","title":"This New Tool Makes AI\u2019s Role in Student Writing Visible","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGenerative artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed college writing. As paper drafts are increasingly co\u2011written with AI, professors are left wondering not whether students are using AI, but how.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA 2025 \u003Cem\u003EAI in Education\u003C\/em\u003E trend\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/copyleaks.com\/blog\/ai-in-action-2025-student-ai-usage-report\u0022\u003Ereport\u003C\/a\u003E found that 90% of college students use AI in their coursework, with nearly half using it during the drafting process. As AI becomes embedded in everyday writing, traditional tools like Grammarly or Turnitin for evaluating student learning fall short. If AI is to be expected in most student writing, then merely detecting its presence isn\u2019t enough.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDraftMarks, a new open\u2011source tool developed by Georgia Tech and Stanford researchers, makes the writing process itself visible. Instead of trying to assess how much of a finished document was written by AI, DraftMarks shows where a student iterated with AI prompts, what is fully AI, and how a piece evolved \u2014 illuminating the often-invisible collaboration between human writers and AI.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFunctioning as an augmented reading tool, DraftMarks layers visual cues directly onto a document to indicate different kinds of AI involvement. Eraser crumbs mark heavily revised passages. Smudges signal AI-generated changes in the strength of the argument rather than content changes. Masking tape highlights passages initially generated by AI. Glue residue shows where AI\u2011generated text was later removed. Ghost text indicates when a writer prompted AI but chose not to use the output. Different fonts distinguish between human\u2011written and AI\u2011generated passages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETogether, the marks don\u2019t just reveal AI\u2019s presence. They tell a story about the writer\u2019s process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBy making the invisible parts of the process tangible, it forces writers to confront whether they are truly engaging with AI or just passively accepting it,\u201d said Momin Siddiqui, a master\u2019s student in the College of Computing and lead author on the project. \u201cUltimately, it helps writers make more intentional judgment calls about how they want to collaborate with AI in the future.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3772318.3791109\u0022\u003Edebuted\u003C\/a\u003E DraftMarks at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chi2026.acm.org\/\u0022\u003EAssociation for Computing Machinery\u2019s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems\u003C\/a\u003E in Barcelona in April.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDesigning for Educators\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERather than starting with detection algorithms, the researchers began with educators. In an initial 21-person study, they observed how instructors reviewed student writing and what cues they looked for when assessing learning, revision, and originality. Those insights informed the design of DraftMarks\u2019 visual language, which deliberately mimics physical artifacts of writing \u2014 eraser debris, tape, smudges \u2014 to reflect processes instructors already recognize.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese marks are meant to emulate the writing process in ways we\u2019re already familiar with,\u201d said Adam Coscia, a computing Ph.D. student. \u201cThey help students and teachers see the effort behind the writing, and whether students actually met the learning objective.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBehind the scenes, DraftMarks tracks a document\u2019s draft history and classifies different types of edits and AI interactions as they happen, allowing the visual cues to appear almost in real time.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EReading DraftMarks\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo evaluate how the tool functions beyond the lab, the team conducted a follow\u2011up study with 70 participants, including students, teachers, journalists, and general readers. Their reactions to reviewing a DraftMarks-annotated document varied in revealing ways.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstructors were most interested in seeing the writing process unfold: how ideas developed, how heavily AI was used, and where students exercised judgment. General readers, meanwhile, used the marks to assess something less measurable but equally important \u2014 trust. For them, DraftMarks offered cues about authorial intent and authenticity, helping readers decide how much confidence to place in a piece of writing.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Shift From Detection to Reflection\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnlike AI detectors that merely offer a percentage, DraftMarks is designed to prompt reflection from writers and readers.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDraftMarks completely changed how I think about my own writing,\u201d Coscia said. \u201cI was surprised by how much I cared about authorial intent once I could actually see how AI affected my tone. It made me realize small AI choices can subtly reshape what I\u2019m trying to say.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs AI continues to reshape how writing happens, the research team hopes DraftMarks will help shift the conversation toward transparency. Tools like this could offer educators and students a clearer window into how learning happens when humans and AI write together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis work is funded through the AI Research Institutes program by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECITATION: Momin N. Siddiqui, Nikki Nasseri, Adam J. Coscia, Roy Pea, and Hari Subramonyam. 2026. DraftMarks: Enhancing Transparency in Human-AI Co-Writing Through Interactive Skeuomorphic Process Traces. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI \u002726). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 862, 1\u201322.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDOI: \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3772318.3791109\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3772318.3791109\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECreated by Georgia Tech researchers, DraftMarks reveals how AI shapes the writing process and offers a new way to assess learning in the age of generative AI.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Created by Georgia Tech researchers, DraftMarks reveals how AI shapes the writing process and offers a new way to assess learning in the age of generative AI."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2026-04-15 13:58:40","changed_gmt":"2026-04-15 14:12:04","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-04-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-04-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679951":{"id":"679951","type":"image","title":"dm_iteration.png","body":"\u003Cp\u003EHow DraftMarks works\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1776261550","gmt_created":"2026-04-15 13:59:10","changed":"1776261550","gmt_changed":"2026-04-15 13:59:10","alt":"Example of draftmarks","file":{"fid":"264177","name":"dm_iteration.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/04\/15\/dm_iteration.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/04\/15\/dm_iteration.png","mime":"image\/png","size":4123226,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/04\/15\/dm_iteration.png?itok=89BUfcUZ"}}},"media_ids":["679951"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Senior Research Writer\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Etess.malone@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}