This story from Bloomberg reinforces why I never check my students’ work for Gen AI usage. Come on, I assume they are ALL using Gen AI tools (just like me). The onus is on me to design class assignments that require explicit human effort and verbal explanation. We should not waste time asking why students are using a ubiquitous technology to do their work.
Excerpt from “AI Detectors Falsely Accuse Students of Cheating – With Big Consequences”:
“Just weeks into the fall semester, Olmsted submitted a written assignment in a required class – one of three reading summaries she had to do each week. Soon after, she received her grade: zero. When she approached her professor, Olmsted said she was told that an AI detection tool had determined her work was likely generated by artificial intelligence. In fact, the teacher said, her writing had been flagged at least once before.
Olmsted disputed the accusation to her teacher and a student coordinator, stressing that she has autism spectrum disorder and writes in a formulaic manner that might be mistakenly seen as AI-generated, according to emails viewed by Bloomberg Businessweek. The grade was ultimately changed, but not before she received a strict warning: If her work was flagged again, the teacher would treat it the same way they would with plagiarism.
The best AI writing detectors are highly accurate, but they’re not foolproof. Businessweek tested two of the leading services – GPTZero and Copyleaks – on a random sample of 500 college application essays submitted to Texas A&M University in the summer of 2022, shortly before the release of ChatGPT, effectively guaranteeing they weren’t AI-generated. The essays were obtained through a public records request, meaning they weren’t part of the datasets on which AI tools are trained. Businessweek found the services falsely flagged 1% to 2% of the essays as likely written by AI, in some cases claiming to have near 100% certainty.
Even such a small error rate can quickly add up, given the vast number of student assignments each year, with potentially devastating consequences for students who are falsely flagged. As with more traditional cheating and plagiarism accusations, students using AI to do their homework are having to redo assignments and facing failing grades and probation.”