Texas University Scandal: Students Seek AI Assistance?
A professor at Texas A&M University has delayed the issuance of diplomas for some students in agricultural science, accusing them of using artificial intelligence.
A Reddit user shared an email from Professor Jared Mumm, in which he informs students of receiving incomplete ('X') grades because their papers didn't pass a test for machine-generated text. The irony lies in the fact that Mumm personally utilized ChatGPT to double-check the essays, in an attempt to spot any possible errors made by the chatbot. The students' protests had no impact on the professor's decision, which has led to the delay in the issuance of diplomas.
You are to use 5 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 dishonestyJared Mumm, an agricultural sciences and natural resources instructor at Texas A&M University–Commerce
The university management confirmed the problem but did not provide extensive commentary on the incident, pointing out a few key details:
1. 'X' grades were assigned solely as a temporary measure during the investigation and did not affect the ability of all students to receive their diplomas.
2. Only one individual admitted to using ChatGPT. Accusations were lifted from the rest, with some voluntarily agreeing to write new essays to demonstrate their innocence.
3. The university plans to establish a policy aimed at addressing the issue of AI use in student assignments and to find tools that can identify non-original text.
However, Vinu Sankar Sadasivan, an expert in artificial intelligence and author of dedicated research, critiqued this method. He highlighted that, due to the relentless advancement of language models that can flawlessly mimic different individual's styles, the future accuracy of identifying generated text would not exceed 50%. Even now, despite high precision rates, specialized services can't reliably determine authorship, and ChatGPT is even less capable.
Illustrating this point, some Reddit users checked the professor's official message, and the chatbot identified itself as the author of the text. This spurred a flurry of humorous remarks about ChatGPT's superior capabilities and demands to scrutinize all the professor's public work. Other participants in the discussion tried to pivot the conversation to truly crucial issues, such as the copyright dilemma of essays, which the professor willingly shared with artificial intelligence.
I don't think people realise how much this guy fucked up. Simply by entering a student's work into ChatGPT, you immediately breach the universities policy around protection of data and confidentiality© Joewoodfilms, a Reddit user
