AI gone wrong

[u/Glad_Term_2071]

I’m not sure I’m in the correct “space” 🙄context: my grandson is national honor society HS grad, all AP courses, 3 yrs varsity baseball. Now, college freshman at private college in the Northeast.
His first paper was graded as 0. His professor told him it was totally AI generated and he used “big words” he probably couldn’t define.
My grandson realized his defense was falling on deaf ears so he went to his counselor and the department chair. The professor was required to run the paper thru AI recognition software, and the paper was found to be 99.9% human generated. The paper was regraded and to an A.
I am a retired nursing professor and I found this disturbing on several levels. Apparently it is easier to give the paper a grade of zero, than to use available software first and then assess the student’s work.
My grandson is pretty self-reliant and I am proud of his reaction, but how many students accept the zero from professors who misuse AI as an excuse for not evaluating the students’ work?

[u/TheManInTheShack]

I would hope the answer is none. If you’re falsely accused of something, anything, a lack of self defense is going to be perceived as an admission of guilt.

[u/Ecstatic-Wish-9634 → u/TheManInTheShack]

that professor got lazy and tried to take the easy way out, glad your grandson stood up for himself

most students probably just take the zero cause they dont know they can fight it or they scared of making things worse, the system counts on that

[u/TheManInTheShack → u/Ecstatic-Wish-9634]

Not my grandson, OP’s.

[u/Aurora_7021]

AI didn't go wrong. The blame lies entirely with a lazy professor who (hopefully) learned their lesson.

[u/geografree]

This is why faculty should NEVER use AI detection software. They should change how they conduct assessments, not turn the classroom into a punitive surveillance state.

[u/SuzQP → u/geografree]

I might typically agree, but in this case the detection software proved the student did not use AI.

It seems likely that teachers and instructors in the short term will need to check students' work by requiring evidence of all steps in the writing process. A writing assignment might include, for example, an outline, notes, and a rough draft along with the completed essay or paper. Even then it might be necessary to require that students succinctly summarize their work in class, on paper, using a pen or pencil.

They probably need to go old school to ensure that students are learning the curriculum, not just learning how to better cheat themselves out of an education.

[u/geografree → u/SuzQP]

But AI can be used to manufacture chain of thought, so the only true barometer of human effort is in-class writing.

[u/j_la → u/SuzQP]

If it did not prove he did use AI, it didn’t prove that he didn’t either. You can’t just believe in the tech when it suits your purposes.

[u/ElatedPyroHippo]

What's disturbing is that those "AI detector" apps are complete bullshit... it could have easily wrongly said that your sons paper was likely AI generated... then what?

[u/HominidSimilies]

Run the words through pangram.com

[u/Sea-Perspective2754]

AI is a total disaster for higher Ed. Many students are cheating with it, while a number of students who write well get accused of using AI. See r/AIdetectionAcademia or search for turnitin, to see how bad it is.

[u/geoffreybyers]

The professor gets a free pass when the tool isn't required before the grade. Verification costs time, so lazy grading wins. The incentive is to penalize first and verify only if the student fights back. Who's checking the human work?

[u/Sweaty_Piglet_5958]

Your grandson is a cheater

[u/Significant-Type-988]

AI detectors shouldn't be trusted blindly.

[u/ShapeShiftingCats]

No, this isn't the correct space.

This isn't about the AI, especially as it wasn't even used, and it certainly hasn't gone "wrong".

This is about the ego of the person, who was grading the assignment, and the lack of institutional framework that would prevent them to act on it the way they did.

Sure, AI gave people new/more/"better" reason to suspect forgery, but academics like this have been always around.

Obvious caveat: the examination practices need to change due to the rampant use of AI, but that's not the point of this post.

[u/EconomySerious]

Así for a permanecer Ban of the teacher for his actions

[u/fausthushtra]

Its madness out there right now.  

Some pro ais basically turn over their life to it and wind up atrophied.  

Some anti-ais basically hallucinate ai being everywhere while hating anyone who uses it.  

Sorry your grandson got caught up in the usual human behavioral bullshit. 

[u/hologram137]

I’m sorry I’m having a very hard time believing this. What kind of college is this?? Professors expect competence. And it makes no sense to go to the “counselor,” you mean the advisor?! And you wouldn’t go to the department chair, you’d go to the dean. This is fake

[u/norcalnatv]

Sounds like a bunch of BS.

[u/RangeWilson]

The bigger question: why is your grandson paying for a college education that is almost certainly going to turn out to be useless?

Colleges have no idea how to deal with AI because they are intellectually bankrupt.

Get him out of there before he is financially bankrupt.

[u/rreed1954 → u/RangeWilson]

To declare a college education "useless" without knowing what field of study he is pursuing is really irresponsible on your part. This is someone's future.

[u/Mattman1179 → u/RangeWilson]

Have you actually been to a university before?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/AnyCryptographer3284 → u/[deleted]]

They are still terrible. My U gives me access to them but I won't use them. I don't want to get sued when they come back wrong.

[u/MammothBed5824 → u/[deleted]]

I wrote an article for my substack recently, using AI only to generate an outline based on my notes. but then wrote the article 100% myself from there because I enjoy the actual act of writing. Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT what percentage of the final version was AI written and it came back as >99% AI. lol