Be careful when using AI if you are a student: the first serious penalties are already happening
A Massachusetts court case has set a precedent for the use of AI in educational settings. The court upheld an institute’s decision to punish a student who used Grammarly, an AI tool, to create a script for a documentary in a U.S. history class.
According to Ars Technica , the student and a classmate directly copied and pasted the AI-generated text, including quotes from nonexistent books. This was revealed when Turnitin’s system detected that the content was artificially generated, and teachers verified that they had only been allocated 52 minutes of work, compared to 7-9 hours for the rest of the students.
While AI already produces 10% of scientific articles, this case highlights the challenges of using it in education. Hingham High School allowed AI to identify topics and sources, but not to directly generate content.
The consequences for the student included partial failures in the project and a Saturday detention. His parents sued the center, arguing that there was no specific rule against the use of AI in the student handbook. However, Judge Paul Levinson found that existing policies on academic integrity were clear enough.
The case revealed surprising details about the inappropriate use of AI. The students not only copied the generated text, but also included bogus AI-generated bibliographic references. For example, they cited a nonexistent book called “Hoop Dreams: A Century of Basketball” that was supposedly written by Robert E. Lee.
The court’s decision comes in a context where AI is changing the process of content creation, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between original and synthetic work. The court was clear: while the use of AI presents challenges for educators, copying and pasting its content without citing it constitutes a clear lack of academic integrity.
Detection systems played a crucial role in this case. In addition to Turnitin, teachers used tools like Draft Back and Chat Zero to confirm the use of AI. The technology exposed the deception by showing real-time work and artificial writing patterns.
This court decision sets an important precedent in the digital age, where AI is changing even our perception of classic works. Students should understand that using AI tools, without proper permission and citation, can have significant academic consequences.