Can Your School Accuse You of Cheating if You Use AI?
| | Student Rights, Title IX
When someone questions your academic integrity–in other words, accuses you of cheating–it’s important to take the allegations seriously because they can have tremendous long-term consequences, even if you are innocent. The sudden prevalence of AI has made the academic world paranoid, and people are seeing plagiarism and other forms of scholastic fraud everywhere they look.
Sometimes, they’re seeing duplicitous behavior where it doesn’t exist. In other cases, the allowable use of AI was not made clear, and a student crossed a hidden line. These days, when college enrollment is slipping and schools are fighting to maintain their reputations, administrators will not hesitate to make an example of a student if they think it will make the institution appear righteous. It is important for an accused student to act quickly to protect their rights and launch a defensive strategy because school disciplinary proceedings move fast, and students often do not have an opportunity to file a meaningful appeal.
Can your school accuse you of cheating if you use AI? Absolutely. They don’t need to meet any type of legal standard to accuse you of cheating. And that’s why your response to accusations is so critical. Advice and advocacy from a students’ rights attorney who understands campus disciplinary proceedings can make all the difference in the outcome and your academic future.
The Definition of Cheating
Cheating in an academic setting is not a crime defined by state law or local government ordinances. There is not even a common law definition of cheating. Instead, actions that constitute cheating are defined by each college, university, and school system. The definition should be set forth in the student code of conduct, but that definition may not be complete. Each department within an academic institution may have its own rules and policies defining academic fraud and establishing prohibited practices. In addition, an individual instructor may have established their own rules as well.
To know whether you have committed a prohibited action that could be considered cheating, you have to find out all the rules. You need to know the restrictions and any exceptions, as well as all definitions. This can take some time, so if the school gives you two days to respond to cheating allegations–a situation that occurred with some Dartmouth medical students a few years ago–it may be extremely difficult to get the information you need. This is one area where assistance from an attorney experienced in student advocacy can prove beneficial.
Find Out the Precise Nature of the Accusation
In addition to gathering details about the rules, you need to learn all you can about the allegations raised against you. You can’t just be accused of “using” AI in this day and age. Every internet search brings up AI-generated answers, so it is impossible to do anything online without encountering AI.
Learning the precise nature of the cheating accusations will enable you to pinpoint your defense strategy. However, sometimes, schools or professors can be vague and refuse to provide specific information. A request from an attorney often leads to greater cooperation from academic officials.
Reliance of AI Detection Software
Plagiarism—always a concern for academicians—became a bigger threat with the advent of the World Wide Web decades ago. Many professors found that the only way they could ensure that students weren’t buying term papers online was to assign extremely narrow or arcane topics. However, with the advent of AI, even these safeguards became useless since robots can cobble together research from a wide variety of sources quite easily.
The new strategy to combat cheating involved reliance on software designed to detect the use of AI. This software often proves to be inherently flawed in numerous ways, but it can be challenging to prove this to the satisfaction of a school that has invested heavily in the technology.
For instance, some AI detection software looks for words laid out in a predictable pattern. AI programs such as ChatGPT do this. However, many human writers, particularly those who are still learning the craft and who are influenced heavily by the patterns they read, also do this.
Older plagiarism detection programs would produce a report showing where text in a student’s work was similar to sources online. However, AI detection software does not produce this type of evidence. Instead, it simply reports that a certain percentage of the analyzed text “might” be AI-generated.
Investigation can often reveal flaws in the software or in the way it is being used. Schools sometimes use programs in ways that produce ineffective results. Knowing where to look for flaws is half the battle, which is another reason working with an experienced student advocate can be so helpful.
When the Use of AI is Not Defined
Many professors and teachers will allow students to use AI tools up to a point. For instance, instructors regularly encourage the use of tools designed to check spelling and grammar. These tools often offer corrections or alternative suggestions, and these suggestions have become more elaborate over time.
It can be hard to tell when the permitted use of a grammar-checking tool crosses the line into unpermitted use of a tool to write for a student. Professors are not always clear about what is allowed and what is not, and school policies are even more vague on the subject. In particular, students who speak English as a second language or those raised in families where college education is the exception rather than the rule often find themselves accused of using AI to generate material when, in fact, they are only trying to polish their work and meet the standards expected by a professor.
A school should not be permitted to penalize a student for excessive use of AI unless the institution or its agent—the teacher—has clearly defined the acceptable limits and the school presents evidence showing that the student has violated those limits.
Talk to an Attorney Experienced in Students’ Rights if You Have Been Accused of Cheating with AI
Your school cannot send you to jail for cheating, but negative marks on your record can damage your academic future, job prospects, and your long-term reputation. To protect yourself and your future, you need to embark on an effective plan of defense as quickly as possible.
At Nesenoff & Miltenberg, our experienced attorneys know how to succeed in defending students in campus disciplinary proceedings, and we are also prepared to continue the challenge in court when necessary. Schools often give accused students very little time to act before negative consequences start piling up, so it is important to act as soon as allegations arise.
If you or a student in your family has been accused of cheating using AI or any other means, call us at 212-736-4500 or contact us online now for a confidential consultation.