Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have taken the academic world by storm, especially at the college, university, graduate school, and professional school levels. Higher education programs are sufficiently challenging, and students are sufficiently technologically adept to make AI tools an attractive study and exam preparation option. However, many professors and programs prohibit AI use for exams to ensure that exam performance indicates a reliable assessment of individual student mastery, not student AI skills. Academic misconduct charges alleging AI exam cheating can result in school suspension and expulsion. If you face disciplinary charges alleging AI exam cheating in your higher education program, promptly retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to get the help you need to preserve your higher education goals and investment.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in Higher Education
As indicated just above, AI has taken higher education by storm, rocking academic programs to their foundations. Higher education is supposed to prepare students for life, vocations, professions, and careers. Higher education is not an exercise in technology gamification. AI can have many useful and appropriate higher education applications. Common AI tools like ChatGPT, Grok, Otter.ai, Canva, Grammarly, Copilot, Gemini, and Quillbot support adaptive learning platforms, predictive analysis, research and citation, chatbots, transcription, spell checking, grammar correction, and even content creation. However, college and university students, personnel, and programs are still adapting to AI uses, especially when it comes to student assessment and examination.
One education chronicle reports that nearly 90% of students in one survey admitted to using AI to complete homework assignments against instructions, while nearly half admitted to using AI on take-home exams against instructions, even though nearly 75% of students believed professors and programs should ban AI on exams. Our attorneys understand both the student perspective on AI use on exams and the professor or program perspective. To help us defend your AI exam cheating charges, you should understand the school's perspective, too. We can help.
AI Use in Higher Education Assessment
The default stance for many professors in higher education programs, and for many programs themselves, is that some programs make AI-use decisions at the program level rather than the professor level, and to absolutely bar AI use for any exam under any circumstance. The reason for the prohibition of AI exams is the important role of higher education assessment. Higher education does not simply prepare students to advance in grade levels, like a primary or secondary school. Higher education programs also serve as certifying bodies for vocational and professional programs and employment.
In short, a higher education graduate who lacks the program's required knowledge and skills, having instead used AI to pass examinations, could cause severe harm, loss, and injury to customers, clients, or patients. Higher education graduates must possess the knowledge and skills, not simply be adept operators of AI systems, at least until AI systems take over vocations and professions. Do not be surprised if your higher education program construes your alleged misuse of AI for exam cheating as a very serious disciplinary charge, warranting program dismissal. Instead, get our skilled defense representation.
Potential AI Exam Misuses
At the same time that college and university programs have solid grounds to ban AI use from exams, students can have legitimate reasons and illegitimate temptations to use AI on exams. AI can frankly vastly improve higher education exam performance, especially for under-prepared students. Consider the following examples of how AI might tempt students to cheat on exams when professors or programs outright ban AI exam use:
- AI could assist students with idea generation, content organization, content creation, grammar and spell checking, and other aspects of essay exam performance on take-home exams;
- AI-powered essay mills can generate full essays for exam submission;
- AI-powered translation and paraphrasing tools can present one student's work or an author's work as the original work of another student, in a plagiarizing fashion;
- AI could generate notes, summaries, outlines, or even answer drafts for students to use to complete in-class, proctored, open-book exams that allow student notes and outlines;
- AI live-access chatbots and similar tools could assist students surreptitiously to complete in-class exams when poorly proctored or on the honor system;
- AI live applications could help students choose, correct, or confirm multiple-choice answers in real time for online exams;
- AI live applications could help students solve problems and show problem-solving work on exams requiring problem resolutions;
- AI voice, text, and video impersonation and behavior mimicry tools could assist students in impersonating and substituting for one another to complete exams.
How Schools Prevent AI Exam Cheating
Higher education programs have responded to AI exam cheating through comprehensive reform of their assessment procedures and academic misconduct policies. The initiative is both to discourage and prevent cheating and to detect and punish cheating to discourage other potential cheaters. AI exam cheating reforms have included or may include:
- revision of the student's honor code to clearly indicate prohibitions on and consequences for AI exam cheating;
- redesigning exams to require critical thinking more so than rank memorization and calculation;
- increasing the use of proctors for exams to discourage and detect AI use;
- substituting oral exams and in-person presentations for written exams;
- substituting project-based exams for written exams and requiring group project exams to self-monitor and self-police against AI use;
- using exam proctoring software that detects AI use;
- randomizing questions and answers, and creating new assessments, to frustrate predictive AI use;
- using complex, multiple-part exam questions with significant detail, to frustrate AI use;
- shortening exam time to discourage AI use and monitoring exam time for too-fast or too-slow submission suggesting AI use;
- analyzing answers and answer patterns with AI detection software;
- recording and analyzing exam screens for AI detection;
- analyzing written answers for AI stylistic patterns and to compare with original student work.
Potential Sanctions for AI Exam Cheating
When facing AI exam cheating charges, you should be aware of the potential sanctions. Colleges and university programs at all levels and locations maintain academic integrity policies and honor codes, requiring students to meet academic conduct standards. Those codes generally authorize the widest range of potential disciplinary sanctions for the more serious forms of cheating. At higher program levels, especially termination-level graduate and professional school programs, any cheating may be sufficient for program suspension or expulsion. AI exam cheating can be one of the more serious forms of cheating because it involves assessment and may involve final, summative assessment. AI exam cheating generally also involves direct, intentional, deliberate, and knowing violation of the professor or program assessment rules, which exams generally state clearly, especially as to AI use, further aggravating potential sanctions.
Even if your program does not impose school suspension or expulsion, any discipline such as loss of score, loss of credit, repeating the exam or course, lowered or failed grade, remedial education, and probation could result in a permanent negative mark on your academic record. That negative mark could cost you a professional license, vocational certification, job, and career. It could alternatively cost you lost scholarships, references, recommendations, mentors, and other support critical to your continued advancement. Don't underestimate the potential harms flowing from a disciplinary sanction for AI exam cheating. Instead, get our skilled and experienced defense representation.
Defenses to AI Exam Cheating Charges
Just because your higher education program accuses you of cheating on the AI exam does not mean that you must suffer a severe sanction or any sanction at all. Our attorneys may be able to raise one or more complete defenses to the disciplinary charges. Those defenses could include any of the following, depending on your particular circumstances:
- that the school misidentified you as involved in AI exam cheating engaged in by others, and that you can prove with electronic records analysis and other evidence and testimony that you were not among the wrongdoers;
- that another student, proctor, professor, or other person retaliated against you with a false accusation of AI exam cheating, for their own extortionate or nefarious purposes, or out of bias or prejudice;
- that the school mistook your permissible use of exam software, word processing, research, or other exam technology as if it involved AI exam cheating, as our forensic computer consultants established by technical examination of the software devices and systems;
- that your professor or program gave conflicting instructions as to the permissible use of AI on examinations, and you reasonably followed reliable instructions when engaging in the exam practices that you did;
- that you mistakenly employed AI on the examination but promptly disclosed and attempted to correct your unintentional misuse of AI as soon as you learned of the mistake;
- that an extraordinary one-time exigent circumstance, such as a medication reaction, illness, traumatic accident, or traumatic family event temporarily altered your judgment in a manner that will certainly not occur again;
- that you have a clean academic and behavioral misconduct record, have completed remedial AI training and program education, and reliably expressed your authentic commitment to conform your technology practices to school requirements such that a repeat of AI misuse is extremely unlikely.
Procedure for AI Exam Cheating Charges
The procedures your higher education program follows to resolve your AI exam cheating charges can also be important to your disciplinary outcome. Colleges and universities and their graduate and professional programs generally publish their disciplinary procedures in student conduct codes or other disciplinary procedures. Those procedures must generally afford the accused student constitutional due process if the potential sanctions include program suspension or dismissal. For example, there are elaborate disciplinary procedures for students at Princeton University.
Academic misconduct procedures generally entail investigation by an academic officer or official, such as a department director, provost, academic dean, or a staff member designated by them. The misconduct investigator may contact you for an interview, generally after completing the other aspects of the investigation. The investigator may enlist the school's technology officers in the investigation to analyze exam answers or performance using AI detection software or other tools. If the investigation results in substantial evidence of an AI exam cheating violation, the investigator or another disciplinary official may then present that evidence to an academic hearing panel at which the accused student also has the right to appear and present defense evidence. An accused student who suffers academic discipline, such as suspension or expulsion, may generally appeal the adverse ruling to a higher academic official.
Our Role as Your AI Exam Cheating Defense Counsel
Our attorneys not only know the higher education disciplinary procedures but also know how to communicate, advocate, negotiate, and otherwise deal with school disciplinary officials for your best disciplinary outcome. Often, we are able to arrange early conciliation conferences at which to present our forensic and other evidence absolving the student from the AI exam cheating charges or mitigating any sanction through remedial measures already accomplished. Early voluntary dismissal of the charges is a possibility in many cases. If instead the case proceeds to a formal hearing, then we can present the accused student's defense testimony, witnesses, and other evidence, including the testimony of our forensic consultant regarding the computer analyses. We can also cross-examine adverse witnesses and challenge other adverse evidence.
If the accused student has already lost the hearing, then our attorneys have the skills and experience to take compelling appeals. We can also seek civil court review and alternative special relief through the school's general counsel's office. Get our highly qualified help to defend against your AI exam cheating charges.
Premier Defense for AI Exam Cheating Allegations
If you are a college, university, graduate school, or professional school student accused of using AI to cheat on an exam, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. Don't face AI exam cheating charges alone or with unqualified local defense counsel. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our highly qualified defense attorneys.
