A note on using perplexity for supporting MBA dissertation project work and the dishonest academic behavior issue

A note on using perplexity for supporting MBA dissertation project work and the dishonest academic behavior issue

 

Regarding using perplexity.ai to support my MBA dissertation project work (via discussion between perplexity and me), will the discussion content be accessed by Turnitin direct and, subsequently increase my dissertation similarity index, leading to the plagiarism charge on me? Besides, how to more appropriately use perplexity to support my dissertation project work without me unintentionally doing dishonest academic acts?

No, your discussion with Perplexity itself is not automatically “sent to Turnitin.” Turnitin checks the text you submit to your university, comparing it against its databases; it does not scan your private chat history with Perplexity by default. A similarity score can rise only if your submitted dissertation contains text that matches sources in Turnitin’s database, including quoted material, prior student submissions, web pages, journals, and other sources.

What can raise risk

If you copy Perplexity’s generated wording into your dissertation, that text may be flagged either as similarity matches or as AI-written text, depending on your institution’s settings. Turnitin’s similarity report is not itself a plagiarism verdict; it highlights matching text, and instructors then judge whether the overlap is acceptable, properly quoted, or problematic. So the real academic risk is not “chatting with Perplexity,” but submitting AI-generated or poorly attributed text as your own work.

Safer way to use it

Use Perplexity as a research assistant, not a ghostwriter. Good uses include: finding background sources, asking for alternative keywords, checking the logic of an outline, generating interview questions, summarizing a paper you will then read yourself, and helping you think through methodology options. Then write the dissertation in your own words, based on the primary sources you actually read and cite.

Practical rules

·        Use Perplexity to discover sources, then verify those sources yourself before citing them.

·        Keep your own notes separate from AI output, so you know what is yours and what came from the tool.

·        Do not paste AI text straight into the dissertation draft.

·        If your program requires disclosure of AI use, disclose it honestly and follow your school’s policy.

·        Treat AI help as acceptable for brainstorming or editing only if your university allows it and you remain the author of the substantive work.

A good workflow

A responsible workflow is: formulate your topic, use Perplexity to map the literature and identify candidate sources, read those sources yourself, build your argument in your own outline, draft manually, then use AI only for light language polishing if permitted. For example, you might ask Perplexity, “What are the main theories and recent empirical findings on housing affordability in Hong Kong?” and use the answer only to locate papers, not as dissertation text. That keeps the intellectual work yours and reduces the chance of similarity problems.

What to check locally

The decisive issue is your university’s policy, because institutions differ on whether they allow AI for idea generation, outlining, editing, or data analysis. For an MBA dissertation, the safest default is: be transparent, keep AI out of the final prose unless explicitly allowed, and make sure every claim in the dissertation is supported by sources you personally reviewed.

 

** the discussion is supported by perplexity.ai

 

A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.