The typical fear of academic institutions is that students will use AI to cheat their way into graduation. However, a Boston university pulled a bit of an UNO reverse card since, apparently, one of their professors has been using AI to generate class lessons. This has led to one angry student demanding a full refund of what they paid the university.
The whole fiasco took place at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Ella Stapleton recently graduated from the university, but even after that, she was still suspicious of her business professor’s lectures. Stapletone pointed out how some of the lectures had telltale signs of being AI-generated, most especially a ChatGPT citation in the bibliography.
Problems grew further since, in the past, Stapleton’s business professor, Rick Arrowood, told them not to use ChatGPT or any AI for their academic outputs. Turns out he was using AI all along. Because of her discovery, Stapleton filed a complaint with Northeastern University and even demanded a full tuition fee refund of around $8,000.
Sadly for Stapleton, the university rejected her complaints even though Professor Arrowood admitted to using AI tools, mainly ChatGPT. Arrowood also regrets not screening the AI-generated information more thoroughly.
“In hindsight…I wish I would have looked at it more closely. If my experience can be something people can learn from then, OK, that’s my happy spot,” says Rick Arrowood, transcript courtesy of The New York Times
At the same time, Northeastern University also released a statement after the complaint and the revelation that one of their professors did use AI for lectures:
“Northeastern embraces the use of artificial intelligence to enhance all aspects of its teaching, research, and operations. The university provides an abundance of resources to support the appropriate use of AI and continues to update and enforce relevant policies enterprise-wide,” according to Renata Nyul, Vice President for Communications, Northeastern University, transcript courtesy of Fortune.
Still, it’s not clear just how much AI use in the university is tolerated, or how much students should rely on AI in order to pass. Other schools have outright banned or placed strict restrictions on the use of AI.
Should Schools that Use AI Charge Exorbitant Tuition Fees?
The recent incident with Northeastern University has raised some eyebrows and conflicting discussions about the use of AI and the future of education. More importantly, if schools use AI to teach, should they charge the same or increasingly higher tuition fees?
For Ella Stapleton’s case, some people online have highlighted how insulting it is to pay good money only for a specialist to provide subpar education and knowledge. What made matters worse was the professor’s lack of transparency and his hypocrisy on the matter.
Professor Rick Arrowood’s admission has drawn criticism from many concerned citizens online, with some feeling relieved that they graduated or finished their education before AI came into the picture. It’s hard to ignore just how dystopian the whole notion is, however, as avoiding AI for education won’t insulate you from the fact that most recruitments and businesses now use AI as well for hiring and practically everything.
“Teachers will be using AI to generate lessons, which the students will use AI to complete homework, so teachers will use AI to grade the papers. Cycle complete,” says WhollyHeyZeus
“She’s right that it’s an insult to pay $8000 to be taught by a ‘specialist’ who can’t even be bothered to double check what GPT vomited at his request, doesn’t disclose his usage and forbids students from using it…” according to Irr3l3ph4nt
