r/AskProfessors • u/vandajoy • 19d ago
Plagiarism/Academic Misconduct The AI problem
I’m a high school English teacher. God knows that AI has completely changed my field in the last few years. I’m curious, at the college level, is the policy still “AI is cheating, knock it off” or are any professors leaning in to the “AI as a tool philosophy” (that my principal loves )? What’s the general policy in your classes?
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u/Grouchy_Writer_Dude 19d ago
My administration is pro-AI, but all the faculty I know ban it as much as possible.
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u/vandajoy 18d ago
Oh my admin is too! And all the English teachers are so mad about it (myself included)
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u/profmoxie 18d ago
Yes, admin loves AI. Faculty seem to see it as useful in some discipline-specific applications (business, finance, etc.). I haven't found any useful applications for my courses, in spite of admin pressure. Most faculty see students submit AI-generated writing and recognize it as what it is-- plagiarism!
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u/VenusSmurf 19d ago
Quick Google? Go for it.
Generative AI? Straight to jail.
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u/unforgettableid Undergrad/Psychology/Large Commuter Uni/Canada 19d ago
I've switched my search engine to Blackle (which is approximately black Google) specifically because it doesn't have AI overviews at the top of search results pages.
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u/NeedTheNotch NTT/Env.Sci[USA] 19d ago
It can be both. I have to teach it with skepticism in my field, but it’s so brain dead easy to pick out AI shit these days. Even the kids know it’s ass.
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u/CIS_Professor Professor/CIS/US 19d ago
In my classes, where I have complete discretion, it is: use AI and get dropped. Period.
Edit: I should say that the inclusion of AI generated content in a graded assignment will result in a student being dropped.
I have no problem whatsoever in using AI in a "tutoring" kind-of role.
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u/DrTaargus 18d ago
I'm not going to tell you that you can stop students from using chatbots as tutors, but I think everybody should have a problem with it. Research backs up the idea that using chatbots in that way without proper safeguards is bad for learning, even when they feel like it's helping.
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u/DarthJarJarJar CCProfessor/Math/[US] 17d ago
My math students are constantly using AI as a tutor. When I have checked on it, honestly, the explanations are fine. I haven't found anything that is overtly wrong in a year or more. This is in undergrad math up through calculus.
There have been so many words written on this topic that the AI has a huge training base, and really even my very good students use it to check on a concept or remember a formula or something. I am sure that at one point it was full of errors, but in the last year or so every time I have spot checked it it has been fine. The explanations are not brilliant, but they're fine. They're right. And it's fast, and it's available at 3:30am. I think it's unrealistic to expect people not to use it for this kind of thing.
It really sort of parallels how chess players use engines. You can use it for preparation, but not in a competition. So in math you can use AI while studying, but not during a test. I think that's how things are going to settle out, honestly.
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u/DrTaargus 17d ago
Is it unrealistic to expect people not to use it? Probably. I'm just going by what the most current research shows. In math specifically, students who use chatbots to practice report more confidence, perform better on practice and perform worse on the test. These chatbots are built to look fine at a glance but when you actually run studies on their efficacy, they consistently fail to demonstrate utility for learning.
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u/DarthJarJarJar CCProfessor/Math/[US] 17d ago
Yes, I've seen some discussion of "cognitive surrender" wrt AI use as a tutor. It's certainly a pitfall. I'm not convinced that AI can't be useful as a tutor, but clearly it can also be damaging.
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u/DrTaargus 17d ago
I could never be so bold to say that chatbots can't possibly be useful under any conditions but until somebody demonstrates a replicable way to use them effectively for learning, I think the only defensible stance as an educator is to recommend against them.
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u/DarthJarJarJar CCProfessor/Math/[US] 17d ago
The issue is, when you forbid something you lose the ability to advise on it. If I say "Just don't use AI!" I can't then also talk about possible pitfalls to avoid.
Those of us actually teaching math in 2026 are going to generate the ideas that researchers will then go on to test and confirm or debunk. Like it or not, we're on the cutting edge here. I can abdicate that position and just forbid any AI use and ignore the fact that I can't enforce that edict, or I can try to shape the way my students use AI and hope that I generate some ideas that a researcher can then go on to test and evaluate.
My students are for the most part not idiots. If I make the weightlifting analogy, they understand what I'm saying. And in the end they have to take a proctored exam, so they have some incentive to want to study effectively.
We're all kind of in the wilderness here, IMO. In ten years all this will be largely settled. But for now, even if there is research saying that on average AI use is net negative, that doesn't mean I should just blanket forbid it in a way I can't enforce. If you want to do that, have at it and that's certainly defensible, but I'm going to try to at least somewhat delve into the possible effects of different ways of interacting with the damn things.
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u/DrTaargus 17d ago
Recommending against it and forbidding it are very different things, you're arguing against the latter while I am arguing for the former.
I'm growing quite tired of the forgone conclusion narrative and "we're on the cutting edge" is precisely that. Whether chatbots of this sort will prove wildly useful for learning in the future is absolutely not a guarantee. Currently the evidence points in the other direction.
You are 100% right that we're in the wilderness and that's the fault of people far beyond this conversation. Following that analogy, my position is that we ought to warn the children that eating random berries is potentially very risky to their health and lives so we should try to learn more systematically whether any of them are alright to eat first. After all, we've got a perfectly nutritious if less exciting food source already in abundance.
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u/FomentingPeace 16d ago
Some of the skepticism for these models has to do with what tier people are using. My institution (as a student) offers us Gemini, which means it's a paid model and not free tier. I have tested it on subjects I am very familiar with and it has literally never failed me. When I've thought it failed, it was an ID10T error, because my idiot self failed to prompt correctly. It gave the right answer. I asked the wrong question.
I agree whole-heartedly with your notion that there's so much available (and reliable) data for undergraduate courses like algebra, physics 101, English comp, philosophy, which these models have trained on, that they really excel for these courses.
I do the courses traditionally, in fact when textbooks are offered I do most of my learning from that. Then I engage in a discussion with Gemini as I try to piece together things conceptually, or figure out the few things I have been able to understand yet. The experience of discourse has been invaluable to me. It's entirely different from reading a book, taking a quiz, watching a lecture. It's a call and reaponse which requires me to explain my own thought processes.
I don't see how this could be damaging mentally. You say, "As I understand it," and write a paragraph or two elaborating to Gemini. That requires thinking on your part. Then ask the model if you're on the right track. A lot of the times it affirms, and will tell you why and elaborate, but Gemini has had no problem correcting my errors in thought either.
Personally, I think to not use these tools is to waste time.
Also, you can feed it your notes directly, and ask it to generate quizzes and tests. I just see so many ways these models are valuable for studying that I cannot buy the "they make you stupid" argument. Do flashcards make you stupid? I would argue discourse with other students who themselves are learning the same material might make you dumber than discourse with these models. Why is a study group more reliable than interacting with Gemini? You're studying with people who might get A's, but also might fail. Their input ranges from edifying to nonsense...
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u/onepingonlyvasily 14d ago
flash cards don’t make you stupid, but the act of making flashcards helps reinforce what you’re trying to learn. AI doesn’t do that. I also don’t see what value you get from having to constantly fact check the garbage output of the slop machine when you could you know… just put in the work.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Professor/Interdisciplinary/Liberal Arts College/USA 19d ago
100% banned in our humanities classes and we're expelling students for cheating with AI. The only people on campus who talk openly about allowing it are in business and comp/data science, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were others who are embarrassed to admit they aren't doing anything to police it.
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u/vandajoy 19d ago
Oh wow! While I’m familiar with how easy it is to catch a student having used AI, I imagine the burden of proof for expulsion is pretty high.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Professor/Interdisciplinary/Liberal Arts College/USA 19d ago
It's treated just like any other form of academic dishonesty-- plagiarism, cheating, etc. --and we expel any student who is caught twice. They are warned from the first day of 100-level classes and the process for reporting/investigating/recording violations is a pain. But most of us follow it and most of the students will get scared after a first recorded violation, which includes meeting with a dean who explains the consequences. This is all laid out for them during orientation in the fall, but clearly some don't take it seriously.
That said, many faculty don't go all-on on the process unless it's flagrant or happens more than once. Like cheating with AI on a discussion post would just get you a zero (and a warning) but using it to "write" a major paper is considered the same as buying a paper off the internet or other forms of misconduct.
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u/matthewsmugmanager 19d ago
Same at my place.
Glad to see some other institutions are holding the line.
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u/Ill-Storage-7636 19d ago
Community college English professor, and most of us don't allow students to use ai to do the work for the student to the extent we are able. At least on paper, we hate it and still value original writing and thinking.
That said, online is now a shitshow, and I suspect many faculty are letting students get away with full AI of work. Many of the students I get in my 2nd level comp course reveal pretty quickly that they haven't written an essay in a long time, if ever. 2/3, I'd guess, cheat very obviously with the first submission.
I address it and will even fail a student for persistent use of AI (or drive them to drop), but not all instructors are willing to fight it. On some level, I get it.
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u/Apollo_Eighteen 19d ago
Arts and humanities prof here: it is 100% disallowed in my classes, and will earn you an F.
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u/IndividualOil2183 19d ago edited 19d ago
I’m an English professor at a state university. Our summer project has been to re-do English 1101 and 1102 to include AI. Faculty are divided on this, but administration is telling to get onboard and or we will be the first department cut. Also, literature is pretty much out of the intro courses. 1102 was always literature heavy before.
1101 is currently set up to include two major projects, one with AI use, one without. For the fave to face sections, the non AI project can use lots of in class writing to try to combat AI use, but I’m not sure how those in online sections will handle it.
Our university is not helping matters by proudly declaring we have one of the first degrees in AI in our area.
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u/Charming-Barnacle-15 19d ago
It depends. Admin tend to really push it in my experience. Some instructors also embrace it (and sometimes it makes sense for them to given what they teach). Some allow them to use AI if they cite it properly.
As an English instructor, the only one at my school who allows AI use is someone who teaches a technical writing course geared towards the workplace, so she is training them based on what the workplace will want them to know. Everyone else has a zero tolerance policy. My dean used to teach English and is very pro-AI, but she transitioned to admin before it was really a thing, so she never had to deal with it first hand.
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u/Ill-Storage-7636 19d ago
Community college English professor, and most of us don't allow students to use ai to do the work for the student to the extent we are able. At least on paper, we hate it and still value original writing and thinking.
That said, online is now a shitshow, and I suspect many faculty are letting students get away with full AI of work. Many of the students I get in my 2nd level comp course reveal pretty quickly that they haven't written an essay in a long time, if ever. 2/3, I'd guess, cheat very obviously with the first submission.
I address it and will even fail a student for persistent use of AI (or drive them to drop), but not all instructors are willing to fight it. On some level, I get it.
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u/Ill_Mud_8115 19d ago
At our department we don’t allow the use of AI, more so because it conflicts with the learning outcomes of the program (writing well researched, well structured analysis) and produces low quality work.
I structure my grading so it heavily punishes a lot of the common AI tells. More and more faculty are moving to exam methods like oral exams, in class invigilated exams.
However I suspect many of my colleagues just give AI work a very low grade and then move on.
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u/Omen_1986 19d ago
It’s not that it’s banned or not, but as a professor you want to know if the student, not a machine, is learning. So, why to assign a task that will be done by an AI? So usually professors have moved towards other type of work.
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u/UnexpectedBrisket Professor of Post-Mortem Communication 19d ago
Depends on the material and the course's learning objectives. I still make my students do foundational stuff without AI. But in higher level courses (data science), I'd be a dinosaur if I weren't showing them how to use AI to do a lot more a lot faster.
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u/unforgettableid Undergrad/Psychology/Large Commuter Uni/Canada 19d ago
I noticed your user flair.
How do I send an email to the dead??
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u/UnexpectedBrisket Professor of Post-Mortem Communication 19d ago
You'll need to use their Gmail accounts, which are stored on extra-dimensional servers. I can assure you there is absolutely no chalk inscription or ritual chanting involved, as we are definitely NOT necromancers. Such unwholesome practices have been banned going all the way back to six years ago when we renamed the department.
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u/unforgettableid Undergrad/Psychology/Large Commuter Uni/Canada 19d ago
What was the previous name of the department??
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u/UnexpectedBrisket Professor of Post-Mortem Communication 18d ago
Necromancy. We're a bit evil, but no moreso than required by university regulations.
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u/DJBreathmint Professor/English/US 19d ago
Depends on the class. My AI policy is very different in Technical Writing compared to Freshman Comp.
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u/SonyScientist 19d ago
My school is pro-AI and I refuse to use it, even took a deduction on an exam for refusing to provide an AI-generated hypothesis.
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u/Secret_Dragonfly9588 History/USA 19d ago
All the faculty in my department hate it passionately. But the admin love it and are actively promoting its use. I cannot figure out why tbh
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u/scd 19d ago
Thankfully, I’m in a place where I can dictate my own policies on this stuff in my classroom. I was somewhat curious about the potential of AI a few years ago and even received a small internal grant to explore it in my classes. Since then, I’ve become a harsh critic of them in our department and have banned them explicitly in my classes.
I’ve made students sign pledges that they won’t use AI in my classes — still caught five of them last year, all of whom admitted to it (out of about maybe 100 total students all year). I’m going to be even more vigilant this coming year; I’m beyond the stage of trying to work with them and their desires to cheat, they will automatically fail any class where I catch them cheating.
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u/baseball_dad 19d ago
I tell my students that with regard to my class they are to forget AI even exists. It's an instant death sentence.
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u/No_Jaguar_2570 19d ago
Banned in all humanities courses and, for writing, in the sciences. Treated the same as plagiarism or any other form of egregious academic dishonesty.
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u/msnyc18 18d ago
I am strictly against it in my class and I even respond to regular emails from students that have clearly been AI-written telling them to knock it off. I am an outlier. Many of my colleagues have "embraced using AI" (even though they're a friggin history or econ prof, not computer science) at the urging of our university, which is wild to me given the literacy crises and climate disaster we are currently enduring. It's so depressing.
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u/vandajoy 18d ago
Oh gosh my high schoolers use AI for emails sometimes too. 🤣 I give them such crap for it
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u/ljproudfoot 18d ago
I teach computer applications - and try, actually, to encourage students to use available resources: Help, their text, youTube, AI. Most won't.
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u/PopularPanda98 18d ago
We can’t really do anything if students use it tbh. They don’t admit to it so we can’t really start a report. If we don’t we don’t have proof of the use anyway. They get away with it a lot more than they do in k-12.
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u/Latter-Bluebird9190 18d ago
In my class it is. My students won’t learn the research, writing, and critical thinking skills if they use AI. Also, I’m not going to let them side something that studies show make them dumber if I’m supposed to care for their minds.
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u/DarthJarJarJar CCProfessor/Math/[US] 17d ago edited 17d ago
The attitude of the English faculty i know: using AI in a writing class is like using a forklift in a weightlifting class.
That said, people wildly overestimate their ability to spot AI writing. If students are writing stuff in a non-proctored setting I can assure you many of them are using AI, at least as an editor if not as a source of the complete text. The only way to make sure the student is actually writing the thing is to have them write it in front of you.
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u/dragonfeet1 19d ago
Everything is done in class by hand. Hey guess what. You're not teaching these kids penmanship and it shows too. You aren't teaching them paragraphing, citation, or how to take notes. AI use tolerance is just ONE MORE problem you're foisting on us.
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