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Daughter Accused of Using AI on Assignment

thestrangebrew1

thestrangebrew1

Diamond Member
My daughter is 16 and has been accused of using AI on an assignment in a college course she's taking and got a 0. She's still got an A in the class, but now she's worried that on her final in 2 weeks, she might get the same result and her grade will drop. I 100% believe my daughter didn't use AI (I'm sure every parent feels this way about their kid) and not sure as parents how to proceed. We're going to email her counselor for some advice on the matter but figured I'd post here too.

The teacher's response to her assignment was that she ran my daughter's response through some AI tool and it got flagged somehow. The way the assignment went was she logged on to her account and opened the assignment on a program called Canvas. The question is posed, and she types in the answer directly there. So there's no way to look up a history of her work (ie. previous versions of a doc.) so we're not sure what other way to prove she didn't use AI.

As a parent, I want to reach out to the teacher to provide the evidence, and see if there's some other opportunity (like an extra assignment) for her to do her work and show AI wasn't used. But she doesn't want us to reach out to her so there's no retaliatory actions in the future. I'm also thinking of reaching out to the teacher to let her know my daughter is concerned this is going to happen again, and to inquire how this can be avoided for the final. "Don't use AI" is the response I'll most likely get so that's probably a non-starter. I was also thinking that maybe on her final, have her write up her response on a Google or Word doc. first, then copy/paste her response into the Canvas platform. Not sure if this would somehow serve as "proof". Thoughts?
 
So the teacher used AI to accuse your daughter of using AI?

It seems to me like a really simple exercise would prove the accusation one way or the other: The teacher quizzes your daughter on the topic and her assignment content. If she knows the topic and her content, then logically she didn't use AI to make it.
 
mikeymikec said:
So the teacher used AI to accuse your daughter of using AI?

It seems to me like a really simple exercise would prove the accusation one way or the other: The teacher quizzes your daughter on the topic and her assignment content. If she knows the topic and her content, then logically she didn't use AI to make it.
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I was going to write the same thing. A simple oral exam should clear it all up. That is, if the teacher is any good at all.

I personally think there is a lesson here for your daughter. If at all possible, she should be the one who is assertive and fight for her own behalf. I don't think it is best for the parent to do it (at least not until the student has tried). Fear of retribution is setting your daughter up to have a life of servitude. If retribution occurs, then you take it up with the principal. And if your daughter still isn't willing, then she probably isn't ready for a college level course.
 
Good points. @dullard yea I suggested my daughter to contact the teacher and just ask if there's something she could do. She didn't want to do that because she feels like the teacher would retaliate somehow. It's my understanding she's not liked by the majority of the students according to my kid. I'm going to try to get her to at least respond to her teacher and see if the teacher is willing to provide an alternative.
 
thestrangebrew1 said:
My daughter is 16 and has been accused of using AI on an assignment in a college course she's taking and got a 0. She's still got an A in the class, but now she's worried that on her final in 2 weeks, she might get the same result and her grade will drop. I 100% believe my daughter didn't use AI (I'm sure every parent feels this way about their kid) and not sure as parents how to proceed. We're going to email her counselor for some advice on the matter but figured I'd post here too.

The teacher's response to her assignment was that she ran my daughter's response through some AI tool and it got flagged somehow. The way the assignment went was she logged on to her account and opened the assignment on a program called Canvas. The question is posed, and she types in the answer directly there. So there's no way to look up a history of her work (ie. previous versions of a doc.) so we're not sure what other way to prove she didn't use AI.

As a parent, I want to reach out to the teacher to provide the evidence, and see if there's some other opportunity (like an extra assignment) for her to do her work and show AI wasn't used. But she doesn't want us to reach out to her so there's no retaliatory actions in the future. I'm also thinking of reaching out to the teacher to let her know my daughter is concerned this is going to happen again, and to inquire how this can be avoided for the final. "Don't use AI" is the response I'll most likely get so that's probably a non-starter. I was also thinking that maybe on her final, have her write up her response on a Google or Word doc. first, then copy/paste her response into the Canvas platform. Not sure if this would somehow serve as "proof". Thoughts?
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"I didn't use AI, I'm on the spectrum" usually works for me.
 
I just watched a news article about this subject. The one teacher in this video has 8 different tools she uses to detect AI. Another teacher encourages the use of AI to critically evaluate their work. One thing is for sure is there is no easy answers regarding using AI as a student.

"How artificial intelligence is reshaping college for students and professors."

 
If your daughter was wrongly accused, I would try to work it out first with the teacher, if that doesn't work out, I would go to the principal, then higher up or elsewhere as needed.
 
Shmee said:
If your daughter was wrongly accused, I would try to work it out first with the teacher, if that doesn't work out, I would go to the principal, then higher up or elsewhere as needed.
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This. I would expect the school to provide some sort of concrete evidence after such a salacious accusation.
 
I imagine AI must be so frustrating for teachers AND for students now, so glad that was not around when I was in school. It's pretty annoying when you work hard on something then get accused for using AI, but also annoying when people do in fact use AI.

I really think schools need to completely change the teaching/learning approach and make things more practical. Instead of "write a paper about XYZ" it should be "make a presentation on posterboard about XYZ, and build a prop and explain it's significance" kind of like a mini science fair project but it can be about whatever the subject at hand is. Pretty hard for AI to do physical things like that.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I imagine AI must be so frustrating for teachers AND for students now, so glad that was not around when I was in school. It's pretty annoying when you work hard on something then get accused for using AI, but also annoying when people do in fact use AI.

I really think schools need to completely change the teaching/learning approach and make things more practical. Instead of "write a paper about XYZ" it should be "make a presentation on posterboard about XYZ, and build a prop and explain it's significance" kind of like a mini science fair project but it can be about whatever the subject at hand is. Pretty hard for AI to do physical things like that.
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It is hard.

However, not every skill can be tested orally or in person.

The process of writing a research paper (doing research, organizing and citing sources, thinking critically about the information, and drawing some conclusion(s) from the information) is usually considered a core academic skill.

However, by late high school and college it’s all independent work - if a student is going to use AI to shortcut things, sure, they’re mainly cheating themselves by not practicing the skill, but there’s not much a teacher can do to prevent it.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I imagine AI must be so frustrating for teachers AND for students now, so glad that was not around when I was in school. It's pretty annoying when you work hard on something then get accused for using AI, but also annoying when people do in fact use AI.

I really think schools need to completely change the teaching/learning approach and make things more practical. Instead of "write a paper about XYZ" it should be "make a presentation on posterboard about XYZ, and build a prop and explain it's significance" kind of like a mini science fair project but it can be about whatever the subject at hand is. Pretty hard for AI to do physical things like that.
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Then kids would just prompt the LLM to tell them how to put the presentation together, I don't see much benefit to this approach. Sure, they're doing arts and crafts now too, but that doesn't necessarily mean much as far as actually learning material.
 
Chaotic42 said:
Eh, it's not like adults don't use AI to do their work - it's actively encouraged. "Vibe coding".

It's going to be a rough 20 years or so.
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First people started abdicating the use of their crystalized intelligence to tech. Now they are abdicating fluid intelligence. What could possible go wrong?

Gen Alpha popcorn brain is not going to end well. The anecdotes from teachers I am seeing are most disturbing. Read some horror stories about interactions with younger than 6 relatives during Thanksgiving get togethers last week. Kids are missing milestones. E.G. still non verbal at 3. Given a iPad and a smartphone together so they can watch Cocomelon and something else at the same time.

I have no good advice concerning the allegations against OP's kid. I presume she is doing dual enrollment where the college classes are free, and she can graduate H.S. along with a 2 year college degree?
 
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jpiniero said:
Don't even need to read the thread.

100% The Daughter used AI. Good on the school for actually trying to do something about it.
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She very well could have. As a parent I want to believe she didn't, and she's never given us a reason to not believe her before. I think the shitty part is she's being accused without providing any evidence other than stating she used AI to determine if AI was used and not provide a way to prove otherwise. I think the sentiment of some of the posts in this thread is on point though. These teaches are probably catching (whether accurately or not) an alarming number of students using AI and are probably sick of it, but don't have a good way of combating it so they're just flat out not caring anymore. IDK. I reached out to her counselor to ask if there's a policy in place for this type of situation, and what the recommends. Next move is to have my kid reach out to the instructor tonight to see if there's anything she can do to get credit, and see if the instructor is aware of any way to avoid this for her final.
 
thestrangebrew1 said:
She very well could have. As a parent I want to believe she didn't, and she's never given us a reason to not believe her before. I think the shitty part is she's being accused without providing any evidence other than stating she used AI to determine if AI was used and not provide a way to prove otherwise. I think the sentiment of some of the posts in this thread is on point though. These teaches are probably catching (whether accurately or not) an alarming number of students using AI and are probably sick of it, but don't have a good way of combating it so they're just flat out not caring anymore. IDK. I reached out to her counselor to ask if there's a policy in place for this type of situation, and what the recommends. Next move is to have my kid reach out to the instructor tonight to see if there's anything she can do to get credit, and see if the instructor is aware of any way to avoid this for her final.
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What's idiotic though is that asking an AI if something was generated by AI is like, the worst way to use it. AI/LLMs are notorious for being 'confirmation engines' if you don't know how to craft a question. I could take this very paragraph and if I found a model that would permit it, I could probably guide it into saying it was AI-generated ('what is the likelihood', 'give me a percentage probability', 'i suspect it is, can you confirm'). Ironically, more advanced/modern LLMs actually won't perform detection analysis because it's essentially bunk. To add to it, the more advanced the model is, the closer it aligns with how humans deliver information, so all human created content looks like AI.

Absent very particular evidence, automated judgement about authorship isn't dependable.
 
Detecting AI usage is a huge issue - the error rates of detecting AI use in completing college course work or exams are, realistically, too high to use as something to deny scores/credit. I had an opportunity to hear a number of notable schools talk about their refusal to buy 'AI detection' tools at scale for their institutions as a result. I forget the specific schools who spoke on the issue but we're talking the schools in the discussion room included notable names like Yale, Stanford, University of Michigan, Notre Dame etc. the recommendations are to either accept it'll be used and adjust your curriculum accordingly or understand there are limits to what you can do and are responsible for in terms of the student's education. Hell there was even some half joking "Do we need to return to the hand written blue book test days" comments.

Of course faculty are given wide latitude to conduct their courses so a lot of schools really can't prevent the usage of such detection tools, only say its not officially supported and have the pedagogical support departments teach alternatives/refuse to help with faculty purchased AI detection tools.

The college should have some formal way to arbitrate academic integrity claims if it gets that far. Its almost certainly laid out in the student handbook and probably involves an office with something like Ombuds, Conflict resolution, Student Arbitration etc in the name
Fenixgoon said:
As i recall those AI checkers are not particularly good at detecting AI usage.
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As a raw percentage they're not terrible at certain points in time (sometimes hitting in the 80-90% correct range IIRC) but that is still a huge number of students who would get improperly penalized. Not to mention the landscape is changing incredibly fast - what was 85% accurate two weeks ago could be 60% accurate this week.
 
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