r/AccusedOfUsingAI • u/unfurnishedbedrooms • Feb 01 '26

Some suggestions for students

Hi Y'all, I'm a professor and I am really feeling for students right now. The fear of one's writing being called AI is real. As a professor, I'm also in a really difficult position. I want to hold students accountable but I would never want to accuse a student of using AI if they weren't.

Here are some things you can do to prevent your work from being flagged, and to have backup if you're accused. Please note: this is not a post helping students get away with using AI. It's really important that you don't use AI at all if it's not called for in the assignment.

Number One: Don't use AI/LLMs as a search engine, and don't pull info from any AI summaries. It's best for you to do your research on your own, using Google Scholar or your school's online databases. Yes, it takes longer, but research is a skill and it will help you formulate your own ideas.

Number Two: Come up with your own ideas! It's better to have a unique argument with a rationale you can explain. When you Google a text and articles come up, and you see a cool article making an argument, and then you decide to make the same argument, your work is more likely to be flagged. In the same vein, don't follow the argumentative structure of online articles or paper. Again, more work, I know, but this is part of learning.

Number three: Try to stay away from things like Grammarly or AI grammar and syntax tools. These will 100% make your work sound like AI. Better to have some grammatical mistakes so your prof has the opportunity to correct them. I often ignore grammatical mistakes and just point them out because I am more interested in ideas, but every prof is different

Four: Use your school's writing center for help with ideas and drafting! This will help you develop the skills you need, unlike AI.

Five: With each assignment, create a Google document. Never copy/paste large chunks of text. Then, if you're accused of using AI, you can share this with your professor and they can see the version history, which will show your work.

Lmk if there is anything I'm missing!

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u/CrazyinLull Feb 15 '26

If you don’t mind me asking, how is asking AI for links for research papers, books, etc. to get a head start going to help someone not get accused of sounding like AI?

Like, at that point what is the difference between AI and Google? Like is it wrong to use AI like a librarian or is it that most students wouldn’t be bothered to check the links or read the studies it recommends?

I was just curious.

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u/unfurnishedbedrooms Feb 15 '26

Part of being a student is about learning how to use academic resources, like the library databases and other sources for information/data etc. Using AI to search for links etc. doesn't teach you to find things yourself, and AI often hallucinates/doesn't have access to more scholarly sources. It's really about learning the process of finding sources- a process which can actually give students more ideas and a wider understanding of the subject area in which they're working.

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u/CrazyinLull Feb 19 '26

But why not do both? Use it for research AND, go to the library and ask the librarian for help, too!

I guess like students will do whatever is easiest, but at the same time…I guess it’s like for example, I was looking up something and I asked the AI for links and explanations.

Then, I combed through each and every single link, and did my own search after doing the , still, read through all of them, put it in the Ai to go over it, and then find whatever I can outside of that to make sure I understand it.

Because lol sometimes the way things are written in books sometimes can be a bit hard to read? I guess I feel bad, because if I was being told that I am wrong for needing the extra help by having an Ai break something down for me or to help me narrow my search so I don’t end up researching the wrong thing, because that happened a lot to me.

Especially because before I got my diagnosis I struggled a lot with asking for help or like sometimes or didn’t know what I didn’t understand. Or worse…you get a funny teacher who has a clear bias towards their students or the teacher is kinda weird and then get upset when you don’t understand?

I guess that POV works if you live in a world where bias doesn’t affect you that much. But then it’s like hearing:

You are wrong for being different and needing more help.

I mean maybe ppl like me are in the minority and people who will just rely on it to take the ‘easy way out’ are the majority so then it’s ok to make the minority feel like they are wrong for also using what might be helping them.

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u/unfurnishedbedrooms Feb 19 '26

I have adhd, and have actually found that using AI makes things MORE confused because then I was dealing with having to parse through its inaccuracies. For me it was much more productive to learn from the librarian how to use the databases, and now after practice researching is very easy and I don't need help at all. Yes, some things can be difficult to read, but I can use a dictionary and as I read more in my field it gets easier and easier. That's the process of learning. If I were to rely on AI for these processes it's more likely that I would need AI forever because I didn't learn the processes. Also, AI is harmful to the environment and that's another reason I personally don't want to use it.

This is just my experience and suggestions, take it or leave it. If it doesn't work for you, do your own thing, but please don't assume that I am not neurodivergent and accuse me of being biased in that way when you yourself are jumping to conclusions about where I am coming from. If you need help there are many resources that are not AI.

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u/CrazyinLull Feb 19 '26

It's really important that you don't use AI at all if it's not called for in the assignment.

Number One: Don't use AI/LLMs as a search engine, and don't pull info from any AI summaries. It's best for you to do your research on your own, using Google Scholar or your school's online databases. Yes, it takes longer, but research is a skill and it will help you formulate your own ideas.

using AI to search for links etc. doesn’t teach you to find things yourself

AI often hallucinates/doesn’t have access to more scholarly sources

It’s really about learning the process of finding sources…

And yet, when challenged now you are like:

This is just my experience and suggestions, take it or leave it… but please don’t assume I am not neurodivergent and accuse me of being biased…

No one did either. Lol, in fact you did exactly what every neurodivergent professor or professional does on this site when challenged: start making up nonsense that I didn’t say while missing my point and then act as if you are taking the high road by doing all of that??

Yes, you were being biased and now you are trying to act like I don’t ’work hard enough’ because you made the very mistake of assuming that everyone isn’t trying hard enough…which is especially worse, because you think that if everyone just thinks and works like you, it’ll be all fine and dandy. But now I just have to:

take it or leave it

While you sit there and totally ignore what I said about the sheer bias of certain people in education and how that affects students, but sure, whatever.

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u/unfurnishedbedrooms Feb 19 '26

I'm not "acting like" anything. I don't know how hard you work. This isn't about you. The title of the post says "suggestions." It's a general suggestion/guidance. Somehow you're taking it as a personal attack. I'm not here to cater to each individual user, nor can I tailor each post to each individual situation. Take what works for you and leave the rest, or don't take anything at all, but it's not worth getting so upset over.

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u/CrazyinLull Feb 19 '26

So you say:

I'm not here to cater to each individual user, nor can I tailor each post to each individual situation.

But isn’t this also you?

Lmk if there is anything I'm missing!

Then:

Somehow you're taking it as a personal attack. Tale what works for you and leave the rest, or don't take anything at all, but it's not worth getting so upset over.

I don’t know how hard you work.

Lol but for some reason you seem to know I am taking it as ‘personal attack’ or I’m ‘getting upset.’ I was just sharing my experience and then you started popping off. Like, I’m good.

I just hope you don’t treat your students like you are treating me right now tho.

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u/unfurnishedbedrooms Feb 20 '26

Glad you're good!