I’m being accused for using AI on some writing assignments. Idk what to do as this is my first time getting this kind of accusation, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t use it for these assignments (but I could have used it to check over it, and used some lines from this). They haven’t released any decision on what they’re doing yet, but say they have evidence I did. If anyone has any suggestions on what I should do going forward, would really appreciate it.
You state you’re pretty sure you didn’t. That to me speaks volumes. So there is a potential you did.
What are the consequences?
If it’s not graduating then an educational lawyer might be needed.
If it’s rewriting the paper and getting a lower grade then OK.
Are you able to use AI for the outline help?
I suppose you were given rules on using AI at the start of the year. Review those first. If you did break the rules, then you need to face what you did. Maybe speak to an adult first. Parent if you can.
But… On CC many students are telling us that after writing their essay 100% themselves that running their essays through an AI reader is detecting they used AI when they didn’t. So it’s not a prefect method either.
Question I always have is if you wrote it by yourself why would you need to run it through an AI scanner? 
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There is the other situation of sitting down with your teacher /professor and just being honest. If you have used AI in the past to see what it can do, that would be logical. It’s an all new cool technology. But if your not sure if you did indeed use it for a school assignment, then maybe you used it to help get some ideas for the paper but somethings got put into the paper?
There must be a way to use AI as an assist tool. We are doing that in medicine now.
Maybe speak to the teacher on the proper ways to use it to assist in your research etc.
If it’s a 100% can’t use it at all, then you might need to explain your actions with the teacher and be honest. It’s only December so you have plenty of time to bring up the grade if needed. But if you used it for actual help. Ask you teacher to make time with you for that help so you don’t need to use AI. That would probably speak volumes to your teacher. Good luck.
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Either you used it or you didn’t. And it sounds like you did. Going forward, don’t do it again.
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Don’t use AI on your writing assignments.
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If you use Google docs, you can access your edit history - that could help demonstrate your writing and editing process indicating that you did the writing, not AI. If you have notes or made an outline prior to writing, showing those things can also help demonstrate that you did the writing yourself. Hopefully you really did the writing yourself. If you didn’t, admit your mistake and learn from it.
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What you should do - assume you will be found guilty. So in advance, learn the school’s policy. You will likely first discuss with the prof, then present your evidence in front of a discipline committee, and then find your punishment. It could be a single assignment grade issue or course issue. Would doubt suspension. Once you find out the initial penalty, if it’s severe you might consult a counsel.
Make sure you are 100% sure if you deny. But if they match the words, it will not be believable. If you did it, be contrite.
I’m glad they didn’t have AI when I grew up. There’s too much confusion.
Good luck.
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Anxiety, which runs high for college applicants. I always di my own writing myself, but I did sometimes run it through plagiarism checks just to be 100% on the safe side knowing full well that I did not plagiarize, but also knowing weird coincidences can happen and such and wanting to make absolutely sure I was good. I imagine these days using AI detectors is basically the same - even if you know you didn’t use AI, sometimes the detectors flag it and you know you open yourself up for risk in that case, even if you are actually innocent.
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My daughter has used it to generate potential ideas for projects and papers. She doesn’t simply copy the idea, though, or use any of the writing it generates, but she has used it as a sort of “brainstorming” tool, sort of like discussing ideas with friends. Caveat: she has done this when it is allowed. Some syllabi she has received in college have stated that no use of AI is allowed, and she has always adhered to that (at least as far as I know, but she’s also on the risk-averse side, so I trust that she has 
).
Here is one example from a recent syllabus she shared:
The use of Generative AI (such as ChatGPT) in any capacity is considered plagiarism, as it is not your own original work. Tools like ChatGPT rely on taking uncredited material from scholars and writers. ChatGPT also has serious negative environmental impacts, particularly in relation to water usage (see hereLinks to an external site., hereLinks to an external site., and hereLinks to an external site. for more info), while OpenAI has exploited workers from the Global South, including Kenya, the Philippines, and Colombia (see hereLinks to an external site., hereLinks to an external site., hereLinks to an external site., hereLinks to an external site., hereLinks to an external site., and hereLinks to an external site. for more info).
On a personal level, relying on AI to generate your academic work will seriously impair your capacity to develop as a critical writer and thinker, which should be one of the central rewards of a university education. AI tools are adept at synthesizing received wisdom and producing analytical platitudes. They are incapable, however, of generating nuanced and original ideas. With this form of cheating, you are cheating yourself above all else.
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The sad thing about AI use for writing is that it completely defeats the purpose of the assignment - i.e. for the student to research, learn and develop themselves further. That’s why they are in college, paying that tuition.
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Sadly, you’d be surprised how many have zero interest in learning those skills. This is particularly true, in my experience, with many CS/ENG students. (Source: I used to teach college reading, research, and composition and there was a lot of open resentment among some students who thought they shouldn’t have to learn these kind of humanities-based research and writing skills since they just needed to know how to code and make apps and such. There was BLATANT plagiarism at times. And this was before AI…).
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Only the OP will know whether they used AI or not. Some of the wording of the posting “seems” to imply that they used AI to some extent.
But the real question is why would you? The purpose of college is to gain skills that can be used throughout life and one’s career. Using AI to bypass that learning experience is only cheating yourself of something you are paying for, in money and time.
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I think OP is asking what should they due process wise as there will be some type of action and hearing.
I’m not sure they are wanting to hear - stop doing it. That’s sort of obvious.
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This board can’t really give the OP an answer to “what they should do?” as we don’t know:
- Whether he did use AI or not?
- What is the school’s policy on this subject?
- What is the action, if any, the school will take?
These questions all factor into what his next actions are. The response can be all the way from nothing to legal action.
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I sort of covered that in the initial response.
And not all AI is created equal. Downloading a template-- “what is a research paper” which shows how to index, footnote, what is a topic sentence, etc. is not the same as using AI to actually WRITE the paper. Which is likely why the OP’s ambiguity (maybe I did, maybe I didn’t) won’t help him.
OP- construct a detailed timeline based on what you did when, which sites you accessed, which queries you used. What modifications you made to your original work based on that.
That’s going to be the primary resource in your defense…
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I think that OP should not be soliciting advice here on how to get out of the situation they’ve put themselves in. Based on how they’ve described it, they used AI on multiple assignments to cheat. So I think “don’t do it again” is appropriate. Just my two cents.
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Not get out of but what the process might look like do they can be ready for it.
It’s likely a hearing of some sort if they choose to fight. But perhaps they can meet with the professor to find out what the accusation is.
Surely the school will have the process to come defined in a handbook and they can start there.
Assuming guilt, OP likely understands not to do it again.
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I understand this. I don’t know how much I used the AI because these assignments are pretty old. Also forgot to mention that the professor asked to meet, and I’m not sure what to say. Should I admit I used it?
I don’t think I blatantly copy-pasted. However, I used the ideas the AI generated and kind of phrased it in my own words for a couple sections. Unbeknowst to me they have a keylogger on the place where you write it.
Did you use any of your own, original ideas? How much was AI-generated ideas and how much was original thought? Does the syllabus for the class outline the AI policy? Or does you school have an AI policy?
If you used it, yes, you should admit it. You should describe specifically how you used it - just to get brainstorm ideas or more than that? But you should absolutely be honest.
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