ChatGPT and Detection

A growing consensus among the academic community regarding academic honesty is for each professor to have an open discussion with students early in the semester about how and if the use of ChatGPT and other forms of AI are acceptable in the classroom. Ignoring it, relying on detection tools to catch it, or outright banning it is not recommended. This conclusion has been arrived at for the following reasons:

• Detection tools have proved unreliable, so depending on them to reveal usage by students is unrealistic.

• Detection tools can lead to false positives resulting in wrongful accusations.

• Students should be taught how to use these tools in a responsible fashion, just as students need to be taught how to use the Internet responsibly, e.g., learning how to recognize unreliable information. So, treating the use of ChatGPT punitively eliminates the opportunity to educate students about it.

• It should be assumed most college students do not enter the institution with the intention of cheating and do not necessarily set out to cheat. However, without proper guardrails and guidance provided by professors, students are likely to use the tools incorrectly.

ChatGPT Guidelines and the Classroom

While professors will use their own judgement regarding the use of AI tools within their classrooms, the emerging policy consensus among academics is for each professor and/or department to have a clear-cut policy that is communicated to students. The fear is that without clearly outlined policies in each class, students moving from class to class may become confused if the topic is addressed in one class and not the others. This kind of inconsistency in addressing the tools could lead to students using the tools improperly. Another fear is that any college institution that does not recognize these tools and find ways to address them productively and creatively will grow stale and outdated. 

The links in the page "Associated Links for Academic Integrity" discuss detection tools. There are also articles that contain recommendations on how to discuss ChatGPT issues with students and determine individual classroom policies for AI’s use. See also the section "Additional Resources" for more information on policies.