In a startling example of how ChatGPT can disrupt education, a university instructor punished an entire class over claims they used the chatbot program to cheat on their final assignments.
“I will not grade ChatGPT shit,” the Texas A&M University-Commerce instructor allegedly wrote on the school's grading software.
The fiancé of one of the affected students detailed the incident in a Monday Reddit post that has since gone viral. According to a screenshot, the instructor temporarily gave every student an “X” incomplete grade over alleged ChatGPT use on three final essays about agricultural science.
“The professor elected not to grade them until today, (graduation was yesterday) so now the university is withholding an entire class’s diplomas after they walked the stage,” the post says. (The Reddit user later clarified: "It was initially thought the entire class’s diplomas were on hold, but it was actually a little over half of the class," which had a total of 20 students.)
The only problem is that the teacher used a dubious method to check for cheating: running each student’s paper through ChatGPT and asking the AI program whether it wrote the essay or not.
“In Grading your last three assignments I have opened my own account for Chat GTP [sic],” the teacher wrote. “I copy and paste your responses in this account and Chat GTP will tell me if the program generated the content. I put everyone's last three assignments through two separate times and if they were both claimed by Chat GTP you received a 0.”
Those on the Reddit thread were quick to point out that ChatGPT can mistakenly claim it wrote an article when it did not. Indeed, today we ran snippets of PCMag articles a human actually authored, and ChatGPT erroneously said it had written the passage. In addition, the AI program has limited memory, along with no capability to recall conversation histories from other users.
In reality, checking whether a piece of text was written by AI can be hard, although there are some programs that specialize in doing just that. Still, none of this stopped the Texas A&M instructor from using ChatGPT as a cheating detector, even though the approach is flawed.
The Reddit post's author, DearKick, who originally brought up the incident, told PCMag: “The situation is happening to my fiancé and 14 of her classmates. She reached out to me very upset yesterday after she had already graduated because they were withholding her diploma due to this. She was particularly upset because she has never heard of chatgpt before.”
DearKick added: “Since machine learning and AI as a whole has become popular I always knew this day would come, but I never thought it would happen in my life.”
To improve their final grades, the Texas A&M instructor gave all students until Friday to complete a new assignment relying on traditional sources. “And as I run this through the chat GTP program if there is any inkling of its usage, not only will your grade stand in the class; but we will proceed beyond the class grade to the office of academic dishonesty,” the instructor warned.
The instructor did not respond to a request for comment. (We’ve withheld his name, since the instructor is apparently now facing harassment.)
The university didn’t deny the incident. “The professor in question is working individually with a few students regarding their last written assignments,” Texas A&M told PCMag. But the school also claimed: “No students failed the class or were barred from graduating as a result of this issue. The professor is working with the students to determine whether AI was used to write their assignments and, if so, at what level.”
However, DearKick said his fiancé is still waiting to receive her diploma, despite never using ChatGPT. "One student has been exonerated through the use of timestamps in Google Docs and while their diploma is not released yet it should be,” DearKick wrote. “Admin staff also stated that at least 2 students came forward and admitted to using chat gpt during the semester. This no doubt greatly complicates the situation for those who did not.”
UPDATE 5/17: Texas A&M University-Commerce is clarifying that "no students failed the class or were barred from graduating" due to the ChatGPT cheating allegations in the class.
"Currently, several students have been exonerated and their grades have been issued, while one student has come forward admitting their use of Chat GTP [sic] in the course," the university said. "Several other students have opted to complete a new writing assignment made available to them."
In addition, the university says it's working to develop policies to address "the use or misuse" of AI technology among students. "They are also working to adopt AI detection tools and other resources to manage the intersection of AI technology and higher education. The use of AI in coursework is a rapidly changing issue that confronts all learning institutions," the school said.
The university's full statement can be found below:
Editor's note: Editor's note: The above statement has redacted the professor's name. The previous copy did not.