The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has singlehandedly produced a widespread fear for teachers and college professors who restrict plagiarism. Not only have assignments been built with plagiarism trackers but professors have even gone as far as creating assignments with hidden prompts that generate specific words to uncover when students paste prompts into AI. However, these strict measurements have also contributed to students being unfairly penalized for using AI when they have not.

Popularly, AI generated responses are known for producing em dashes in their answers, becoming a clear indication that students have used AI in their assignments. Nonetheless, there are many students who were taught how to properly use em dashes in their writing. Although many students may not have this skill, using dashes should not be deemed as an indicator of AI usage subject to being expelled from campus. 

While I do agree that college students should not use AI to complete their assignments, especially if they are going into fields that require human interaction and medicine, I do think that uncovering AI should not be so loosely monitored. I believe that professors should read their students’ work closely instead of solely relying on an AI tracker to bust their students. The majority of the time, AI is detected in students’ work that includes quotations from other sources. AI systems, such as ChatGPT and Claude, can only highlight that a source has been copied but do not indicate that it was quoted and cited. Therefore, it is easy to assume that a student has cheated on an assignment, even when they have not. 

At this point, it should be very easy for professors to determine which assignments have been generated through ChatGPT or Claude as opposed to assignments that are simply well-written. This is especially true for professors who have been teaching for years. Students who were taught to write in a specific format should not be accused of using AI unless there is abundant evidence that points to AI generation. With the effects of AI usage being so harshly punished, it is imperative that students are not wrongfully called out. 

In the upcoming years, it is predicted that AI will become more powerful and crucial in the event of our lives. As a result, the rules for AI usage will only be enforced on a larger scale. Students should put their original work through AI trackers themselves, ensuring that there is no indication of AI within their original work.