ORLANDO, Fla. – The growth of AI is putting schools, students, and teachers in a difficult position.

For students, a charge of plagiarism can mean a failing grade or, depending on the school, even expulsion. As technology advances, it is becoming easier to use AI and harder to detect, a problem for all involved.

“We get calls every day from students accused of academic integrity violations associated with AI,” Susan Stone, an attorney at Kohrman Jackson and Krantz, told News 6.

Stone and Kristina Supler co-chair KJK’s Student and Athlete Defense practice group, focusing on helping students accused of cheating using AI.

“What we’re seeing in our law practice is this inherent tension between students and often professors regarding what is a responsible and ethical use of AI,” Supler said.

Establishing where that line is drawn can be difficult. While programs like Grammarly assist with phrasing, spelling, and punctuation, other tools can go much further. Programs like ChatGPT can create everything from a few sentences to a full paper in a matter of seconds.

Complicating matters further, many systems used to check for plagiarism rely on AI themselves.

“We’re seeing so many instances in which a paper or an essay is flagged by an AI detection system, and then there is no dialogue about what you did or didn’t do,” Supler said.

One recent study found that one in 10 assignments used some form of AI, while roughly 3% were entirely created using AI. These numbers have prompted schools to step up detection as programs become more advanced and easier to use.

One thing some schools have considered is returning to traditional methods: paper and pencil. For students accused of cheating, experts recommend documenting everything. Using tools like Google Docs can help track writing and prove, if asked, that the work is original.