Your teacher says you used artificial intelligence to cheat. You did no such thing. Now what?
Stay calm, and let the facts help you.
Less than a year into the life of ChatGPT, teachers everywhere are getting AI-detecting tools that promise to expose when students use chatbots to cheat. By August, an AI detector made by plagiarism-detection company Turnitin had already been run on more than 70 million assignments, it said.
AI surveillance might deter cheaters. But sometimes these detectors get it wrong, too. And even a small “false positive” error rate means some students could be wrongly accused — an experience with potentially devastating long-term effects.
After I wrote about the arrival of the AI detector from Turnitin, I heard from many angry high school and college students (and some of their parents) claiming they had been falsely accused of AI cheating.
So I asked some of them how they handled the accusations, and I also sought some advice from experts in academic integrity and AI.
The clear lesson: You can fight back. Many told me sharing an article like this one with the instructor is a good place to start. (Hi teachers, I’m on your side, too! I don’t want us to misuse tech in ways that could have dire consequences.)
Here are five steps to consider. Hopefully you can find resolution before you get to the end of the list.