Plagiarism is solved. Citations aren’t.
AI invents references that pass every plagiarism check. Acurio matches each cited claim against the original source, for whole submission batches and before the grade.
Request a pilotRunning pilots with several Swiss institutions.
Fabricated sources are multiplying.
Measured in published, peer-reviewed research. What gets through there gets through a submission batch too.
Peer review doesn’t stop them either: at ACL 2026, over 100 already-accepted papers cited literature that doesn’t exist.Source: ACL 2026 Program Chairs
Ask GPT-4o for sources and more than half are wrong.
176 references GPT-4o produced for mental-health literature reviews, each checked by hand. Every square is one reference.
- 35fabricated outright
- 64real, but cited with errors
- 77correct
A plagiarism check flags none of these errors. Fabricated sources are original text.
Even the newest models would rather guess than admit they don’t know.
Artificial Analysis measures how often a model answers wrongly where it should have said “I don’t know.” Among today’s frontier models, that hallucination rate runs from 15 to 95%.
Acurio doesn’t ask a model to remember. It reads the source.
For every citation, Acurio finds the matching passage in the original source and judges against that passage. Examiners see claim, source, and reasoning side by side.
1Capture the claim
Acurio finds every citation and the claim it is meant to support.
Digital teaching improves learning outcomes across the board by 40% (Meyer, 2023, p. 24).
2Find the passage
Acurio searches the whole source, even when the page reference is off.
Meyer_2023.pdf · p. 24In the tutor-supported subgroup, learning outcomes rose by 40%. The full cohort showed no significant difference.
3Give a reasoned verdict
Supported, partly supported, or unsupported, each with its reasoning.
Partly supportedThe source reports 40% only for the supported subgroup. The thesis generalizes it to everyone.
Fictional example. If a source is missing, the passage reads “not checked,” never “unsupported.”
Before the grade, a fabricated citation is a correction. After it, it’s a case.
- Submission
- Review
- Grade
- Archive
Surfaces after the grade, if at all.
Caught during review, with the original passage.
Before the grade
Fabricated and overstated citations surface while they are still a correction.
Minutes, not hours
The report shows the flagged passages first. Examiners only read up where it matters.
Evidence, not a score
Every verdict shows the original passage. That holds up before boards and appeals; an AI-detector score doesn’t.
One standard
Every thesis is checked the same way, regardless of who supervises it.
Several Swiss institutions already check with Acurio.
In a pilot, we check a real submission batch from your department. Then we walk through the findings together, and you decide. No contract.
Intro call
We settle scope, file formats, and timing.
Your batch
Acurio checks real theses against their real sources.
Review
We show you what Acurio found.
Licenses per department, faculty, or institution. Hosted in the EU (Germany), GDPR-compliant, your data is never used for training.
Frequently asked questions
Does Acurio replace our plagiarism check?
No. Plagiarism software finds copied text. Acurio checks whether the cited source supports the claim. The two complement each other.
Is Acurio an AI detector?
No. Acurio doesn’t guess whether a model wrote the text. It shows whether the citation holds, with the original passage as proof. AI as a tool stays allowed; fabricated citations don’t.
Do we need the original sources?
For the full check, yes. If a source is missing, Acurio marks the passage “not checked,” never falsely as unsupported.
Can students use Acurio on their own?
Yes, and that helps you. Students who check first find wrong citations themselves and fix them before the thesis reaches you. A self-check doesn’t make a fabricated source real. A private check doesn’t replace your review, though: you can’t know which version was checked against which sources. The submitted version is what counts, and you check it with Acurio yourself.
Can we see what students check privately?
No. Acurio doesn’t show you or their supervisors what students check with their own account. That lets students check early and fix wrong citations before they submit.
Where does our data live?
In the EU (Germany), GDPR-compliant. Uploaded theses and sources never train a model.
Which institutions are running pilots?
Acurio is running pilots with several Swiss institutions. We name them only once the institution agrees.
Where do the numbers come from?
From The Lancet (2026), JMIR Mental Health (2025), an analysis of the ACL, NAACL, and EMNLP conferences (2026), the ACL 2026 program chairs’ statement, and Artificial Analysis’ AA-Omniscience benchmark. Each chart links its source.