The new topic of concern in education today is ChatGPT. This is a natural-language OpenAI tool that lets users enter a query in natural speech, and, through a series of guided questions, “talk” to the AI and receive a text-based answer. ChatGPT can return an entire paragraph or essay based on a few inputs. ChatGPT takes the user's inputs, and gradually “learns” what the user needs. It then “predicts” what the user wants and presents a range of answers and suggestions.

Plagiarism and Hallucinations

In June 2023, professors at University of California, Berkeley, discovered that their students were using ChatGPT for research, brainstorming, and wholesale essay and even thesis production. Thirteen of 125 students admitted to using the AI resource to write their papers.

Educators are divided as to whether AI-generated documents are plagiarized or not. Some feel that ChatGPT can be a useful research tool. Others believe that use of the device is pure plagiarism. All agree that it is easy to spot the AI-generated papers: they are grammatically perfect, but lack substance, creativity, and detail.

The biggest issue professors have discovered is that AI is woven into nearly all advanced word-processing and online research tools. Predictive AI is used in tools such as Grammarly, Hemingway, Copyscape and others. These products have algorithms that can “learn” following inputs and predict the user's typical usage patterns. Blanket bans on AI mean that these products might be eliminated as well.

More troublingly, AI journalists have discovered ChatGPT tends to “hallucinate”—that is, to produce content unrelated to the query or make up content on the fly. This was most spectacularly proven when two New York attorneys were sanctioned for including nonexistent citations in an AI-generated brief.

AI and Future Conduct

At present, colleges and universities have ethical standards and sanctions against the use of AI, categorizing it as cheating and plagiarism, as much as any other form of copying without citations. It remains to be seen whether use of AI-generated papers will be considered sanctionable or a violation of school ethics. Some colleges, such as Brown University  have banned its use. Others have not. The question is rapidly evolving.

Just like the lawyers with their nonexistent citations, imaginary citations have begun appearing in student documents as well. If students rely on AI without doing their own fact-checking, AI “hallucinations” can appear anywhere. Retractions, degree revocations, suspensions, and honor board hearings are becoming more frequent in universities and research facilities as both AI-generated documents and the ability to detect them improve.

Students' best course of action is to use the new technology as a research tool and brainstorming tactic (unless their school expressly disallows it), but not use it to write their papers. The issue of whether ChatGPT is plagiarism may be resolved quickly, and likely not smoothly for students caught in the decision-making process.

The Lento Law Firm stays on the cutting edge of these questions so that we can help students who need assistance with academic hearings and honor-board reviews. Knowing what you may face and how to respond can mean the difference between a minor reprimand or a suspension or worse.

If you're facing a disciplinary hearing, contact the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686 or visit us online. We help students at every level and institution, from community college to Ivy League and from undergraduate to post doctorate. Call us today.