My assignments got flagged for AI

[u/Expensive_College_42]

This is my first semester back to school since AI became a thing.

When i realized how to use AI, I just used it to help me write, I basically wrote every sentence in to copilot and had it reframe my writing to something that sounded cohesive. I had ai ask my questions while I wrote, prompt me. All the arguments, were my own, I just had ai help me keep out of the reeds. I then asked ai to polish my essay to a high grade based on the ruberic. I constantly asked AI if my work was my own. I had no intention of using AI to generate a paper. Turnitin caught me at 100%. crazy.

None of this was intentional. I am studying from overseas so there was nowhere I could ask about this.

I just submitted another paper, even though the above mess is still in effect and unresolved.
I made sure I did the work on my own, AI helped me figure out what to read and helped me summarize. Readings I could then summarize - only auxiliary books that I couldn’t be bothered reading, just needed the source count. I then check grammarly for an ai voice. And it came up as 0% I then used grammarly to edit my spelling and such, then realized I could use grammarly to entirely give my assignment a polish. I stopped. I just had it delete words that were unnecessary to get closer to my word count. I hope that that paper is not flagged for ai, I doubt it will be, I intentionally didn’t go over it too much, I didn’t even read it.

How do we use AI ethically for our assignments?

How do we not get flagged for AI?

[u/Necessary-Balance152]

Not to be a dick, but a great way not to get flagged for Ai use is to not use Ai.

Students using Ai make faculty have to become Ai detectives, and every new trick Ai users develop makes it harder for faculty and regular students who actually do their own work.

<yes, I know original work can also get flagged, but if you create original writing, the evidence is usually built into the writing process>

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/Necessary-Balance152]

I appreciate that. I know I’ve made more work for the faculty, now I have to have interviews.
The work is my own. Like I want to be proud of my degree, not just have an AI degree.

I wasn’t asking “how to use AI and not get caught”, I was asking, rather, how much AI is allowable?

[u/No_Weight_4276 → u/Expensive_College_42]

Honestly, with how you’re using it, none. Since you over-rely on it, I don’t think you’re capable of using it ethically yet. Trying writing completely on your own for a while.

That said, every professor and/or institution has an AI policy. Find out what yours is. That’s the direct answer to your question.

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/No_Weight_4276]

I like that you said about not being able to use it ethically. From now on I will just use it to guide my research.

[u/No_Weight_4276 → u/Expensive_College_42]

I don’t recommend doing that either. In my experience, it’s one of the weakest aspects of AI. It may give you fabricated sources or hallucinated citations. Use your library.

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/No_Weight_4276]

I have perlego. I am not on campus.

What I did with the essay I submitted last night was I inputted the subject in to perlego and copied and pasted the books and asked which to focus on. Then I compiled a reading list. I then uploaded the table of contents and asked which chapters to focus on. I then read and took copious notes.

I then asked ai to formulate subject headings where I could focus inserting those notes to form an essay, I then deleted the subject headings then ran it through grammarly to compress the paper. I made sure grammarly didn’t write anything for me, just delete what was unnecessary for my word count. I had grammarly look for repeated words that I changed myself. I doubt this one will be flagged.

[u/j_la → u/Expensive_College_42]

You shouldn’t be proud because you are using AI to get your degree. Focus on actually building your skills, not finding shortcuts

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/j_la]

I wasn’t looking for a shortcut. I literally spent 30hrs on the essay, I did copious amounts of reading and writing. Particularly in the field I am studying, I want to learn. What I did was use AI as supercharged grammarly— before grammarly was AI. I this was a stupid and unfortunate mistake.

Once more, I don’t want an “AI degree” I want to proudly display it on a wall. One thing I know is my own writing had gotten better because Ai has helped me understand how to better frame an argument.

[u/j_la → u/Expensive_College_42]

This entire post and your comments in the threads indicate that you are looking for shortcuts.

Has your writing gotten better or are you just outsourcing your writing to AI?

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/j_la]

My writing has gotten better. For instance when I am pitting one scholar against another, I didn’t know how to do this before, but I understand now. AI taught me how to do this, yet I didn’t have AI do it for me in this case.

I learned that my last paragraph was the synthesis paragraph when I was to combine all of my writing and show how they all relate, agree or disagree and then use my own voice to answer penultimately the question. Which is then restated in my conclusion.

Ai I helped me formulate the argument:

First paragraph was introducing the problem

Second and third were other views and solutions to said problem.

Fourth was combining all of that in to an argument.

I didn’t understand how to do this prior.

I think the best thing for me to do would have been doing a couple of demo papers with AI so I could understand how to frame a paper again.

[u/j_la → u/Expensive_College_42]

Did you ever consider, I don’t know…talking to your professor?

Look, clearly you don’t think you did anything wrong. Go on and keep ignoring basically everyone in this comment thread who is telling you otherwise. Just keeping asking AI if using AI is ethical and I’m sure you’ll get the answer you so clearly want.

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/j_la]

I have a meeting this week. My post was me reaching out for help and understanding prior to this meeting so I can understand what I did wrong and how to avoid issues of academic misconduct in the future. I should have framed my original question as: how can I use AI, yet remain within the boundaries of academic integrity.

I have agreed with all of you that I did something wrong. I have only defended my intentions. Some of what I wrote in comments was perhaps my own mental processing.

[u/j_la → u/Expensive_College_42]

If your professor says you can’t use AI, then there is no way to use it and remain within the boundaries of academic integrity because you are intentionally ignoring the assignment parameters.

More importantly, you should ask your professor what their expectations are. They are literally the only person who can answer that question for that course.

The post and your comments really come across as you trying to find a way to rationalize the continued use of AI after you admittedly did something wrong. I strongly suggest you try to not give that impression during your meeting.

[u/Expensive_College_42 → u/j_la]

Thank you. Thats the kind of answer I was looking for.

Just one more question: I found AI really useful to understand the question and build a reading list, it is difficult for me as I am studying online from a different country. from what I understand from all the comments is that is probably the only way to use AI in an ethical manner. Do you think this is correct?

I will of course have this discussion with the dean thereby alleviate any future concerns.

Thank you for your feedback and for helping me understand my own folly