A US student at Northeastern University in Boston has demanded a refund of her tuition after learning that one of the professors was responding to her assignments via ChatGPT.
In February, Ella Stapleton was going over her organisational behaviour class lecture notes when she came across a directive addressed to ChatGPT. The New York Times claims that the content used expressions like “expand on all areas” and displayed typical indicators of artificial intelligence-generated content, including clumsy wording, warped visuals, and even errors that resembled machine output.
Stapleton said: “He’s telling us not to use it, and then he’s using it himself”
See also: How saying please and thank you to ChatGPT is costing OpenAI millions
Citing her professor's concealed use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other issues with his instruction, she filed a formal complaint with the university's business school. She asked for a reimbursement of more than $8,000, which is how much the course cost.
Subsequently, the professor, Rick Arrowood, admitted to using ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and the AI presentation tool Gamma for his work. He told the New York Times: “I wish I had given it a closer look.”
Additionally, he acknowledged the shortcomings of the AI-generated information and mentioned that he hadn't used it in the in-person class discussions.
Following several discussions, Stapleton's request for a refund was denied by Northeastern.
Northeastern “embraces the use of artificial intelligence to enhance all aspects of its teaching, research, and operations” according to a university spokesperson cited by Fortune.
The spokesperson also stated that the university has policies requiring attribution and accuracy checks when using content generated by artificial intelligence.
This incident has sparked a larger discussion in higher education as students increasingly criticise professors for utilising AI tools.
Although many universities ban students from using ChatGPT and related programs for academic purposes, instructors are now being criticised for doing the same.
A survey of more than 1,000 UK undergraduates, conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), found 92 per cent of students were using AI to generate material for work they would be marked on.
This is up from 66 per cent in 2024, and some 88 per cent having used GenAI for assessments, is up from 53 per cent in 2024.
With secondary schools joining a new study by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) studying the use of AI to create lesson plans, teaching resources, tests, and model responses, teachers are also looking at incorporating AI to make their jobs easier.
