A college student’s academic integrity has come under scrutiny in a thought-provoking case that highlights the complex intersection of technology and education. Accused by their professor of using artificial intelligence (AI) to write essays, the student, who only used common digital tools for writing assistance, faces a series of failing grades. Despite presenting evidence to counter the allegations, the student struggles to convince the skeptical professor.
✅ AI Essay Writer ✅ AI Detector ✅ Plagchecker ✅ Paraphraser
✅ Summarizer ✅ Citation Generator
Key Takeaways
- While many students use digital tools like Grammarly for writing help, AI detection tools like GPTzero can mistakenly flag this as AI-written content, which mostly leads to false accusations.
- When accused of AI-assisted writing, students should appeal to the school board or department chair. This process can help challenge unfair accusations, especially in cases where AI detectors are known to be unreliable.
- To highlight the fallibility of AI detection tools, some students suggest using these tools on professors’ own work. This approach can demonstrate the tools’ inaccuracy and prompt a reevaluation of their use in academic settings.
Today, with advanced AI technologies, it’s not so uncommon for students to use different tools to help them write better. Students frequently turn to grammar checkers, like sophisticated Grammarly and thesauruses to refine their work, or an AI to human rewriter to polish their tone of voice. And even though these technologies don’t initially pose any danger to academic integrity, modern AI-detection programs don’t necessarily set them apart from other software like ChatGPT, Bard, etc.
Tools like GPTzero, are designed to identify AI-generated content, ensuring that students’ work is original and self-produced. However, this reliance on technology for both writing assistance and detection still provokes complex situations. Oftentimes, it complicates life for both the professor and the student involved in such a mishap.
This situation is just the tip of the iceberg of many more similar occurrences that happened throughout this year. Once again it opens a dialogue on the necessity of balance between leveraging technology for educational advancement and upholding fair academic practices.
Is Revisions History in Google Docs Enough of Evidence?
For students, proving you wrote your own essay can be tricky, especially if your professor thinks you used AI like ChatGPT. Some say that the edit history in Google Docs, which shows every change you made, should be enough to prove you did the work. Not all professors agree though. One student shared,
“I tried giving [the revision history] to the professor but he denied it.”
They worry that students could just copy an AI-written essay into Google Docs, making fake edits to look real. Some students suggest fighting back by asking for a formal review, like an honor board hearing. Others recommend using special tools in Google Docs to show your entire writing process in a video. This could help show that you did the work. But there’s a bigger point here. One person from a university board said,
“Can a reasonable person really expect I’d spend four hours on this if I could have just used ChatGPT?”
After all, if you put in a lot of time and effort, it doesn’t make sense that you cheated.
Lastly, think about it – cheating usually means taking a shortcut. If making it look like you didn’t cheat is harder than just doing the assignment, why bother? This is why your edit history in Google Docs might actually be a good way to show you did the work yourself.
Appealing to the School Board is the Only Answer
When facing accusations of AI-assisted writing, appealing to the school board or department chair may be the most effective course of action for students. A professor and department chair shared,
“The school definitely has an appeal process… I’ve ruled in favor of the student many times. No harm in trying.”
This advice underlines the importance of using established academic processes to challenge unfair accusations. The debate over the use of AI detectors in education is also part of this discussion. One comment highlighted a difference in approach between American and European schools, stating,
“In Europe, we don’t use them, and are currently working on ways of adapting education to implement AI instead.”
This perspective suggests that some educational systems are more focused on integrating AI into learning rather than just detecting it. Another educator added,
“We don’t use [AI detectors] in my institution… We all know they don’t work.”
This reflects a growing recognition that AI detection tools might not be as reliable as once thought and that educators can often identify AI-generated content without them. To strengthen their case, students should be prepared to verbally defend their work. As one suggestion goes,
“I would recommend going through this process and asking to verbally defend your essays.”
This means being able to discuss not just the content of the essays but also the underlying theories, ideas, facts, and opinions. This approach not only demonstrates the student’s understanding of the material but also reinforces the authenticity of their work.
Let the Professor Taste Their Own Medicine
In response to unjust AI plagiarism accusations, some students and commentators are advocating for a more direct approach: turning the tables on the professors themselves. The first suggestion that launched the conversation onto this path was to show this professor all the ‘articles of the AI detector giving false positives.’ This would demonstrate the unreliability of such tools and could challenge the professor’s confidence in their verdict. However, other Redditors decided to take it a step further,
“Put one of his publications in the same AI detection tool he used, and if it comes back as AI, show it to him and wait for the surprised pikachu face.”
This approach could clearly show how AI detectors can make mistakes, urging people to think twice about using them in schools and colleges. Additionally, it’s important to highlight the limitations of these AI detectors as outlined in their own terms of service. As one user noted,
“The ChatGPT AI detector has a clause that specifically says you should not use it for this.”
Citing these terms during an appeal could strengthen a student’s argument, especially when coupled with evidence like edit history. Furthermore, pointing out the broader inaccuracy of AI detectors using well-known texts can be effective. As one comment suggests,
“Tell your teacher to run the text from The Declaration of Independence through his stupid AI checker.”
This type of demonstration could expose the absurdity of relying solely on AI detection for assessing originality.
AI Detection Tools Has Proved Long Ago To be Ineffective
AcademicHelp has long navigated the field of education technology. We saw how educators tried to ban AI and how, as a result, AI-detection tools have emerged to help guard academic integrity. However, as the time went by it became more and more clear that these technologies weren’t ideal, and they wouldn’t become a cure-all solution. If you want to track down the history of such softwrae, you can look at a few of our articles below:
Due to these controversies and the constant emotional roallcoaster towards AI and AI detection, it seems that most educators have agreed to just pause and rethink their general approach towards teaching and studying. And even though this doesn’t mean that tools to detect AI in student’s work won’t be advanced and further implemented in the nearest future, for now students may appeal to the use of such software due to its high rate of false positive results.
And if you thought you were the only one to be falsley accused of using again, we can assre you that currently this is a much universal trend among students of all levels: from high choll to university. We covered a few similar stories earlier and will include them below so you can find needed answers or just generally make yourself feel better about your situation.
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