A hot potato: Yet again, a legal case emerges involving a student penalized by their educational institution for allegedly utilizing AI. The individual in question, expelled from the University of Minnesota last year, insists the accusations are false and part of a conspiracy by his professors.
Haishan Yang was pursuing his second PhD at the University of Minnesota when he faced expulsion due to allegations of using artificial intelligence tools to compose his essays.
Yang, aged 33, took a preliminary exam remotely while traveling to Morocco during the summer of 2024.
The exam, crucial for doctoral students to commence their dissertations, required writing three essays within eight hours. While notes, reports, and books were permitted, AI tools were strictly prohibited.
Concerns arose among all four faculty graders that Yang’s exam responses seemed unauthentic. They noted answers that appeared irrelevant, weren’t covered in class, and featured acronyms atypical in the field but frequently present in responses from ChatGPT.
Two instructors tested the exam questions with ChatGPT and found the AI’s outputs strikingly similar to Yang’s essays in terms of format, structure, language, and content.
“The similarities seemed too significant to be mere coincidence,” wrote Professor Peter Huckfeldt in a letter to the hearing committee.
Yang argues that the similarities are due to ChatGPT using the same reference materials he utilized. Moreover, he accuses the professors of editing the AI’s responses to resemble his answers.
During the proceedings, Yang was also criticized for lacking numerous citations and providing “inconsistent” testimonies.
Yang contends that current AI detection methods are unreliable and biased, especially against non-native English speakers. He grew up speaking Southern Min, a dialect of Chinese, reports MPR News.
According to Yang’s academic advisor, Bryan Dowd, Yang is “the most well-read student” he has ever taught. “In over four decades, I have never witnessed such hostility directed at a student. There is no logical explanation for this animosity,” Dowd commented.
Yang claims the hostility began when his financial support was terminated during his tenure as a research assistant, under the pretext of poor performance and inappropriate behavior. A graduate director even suggested he should drop out. After appealing, Yang won the case, and the university agreed to reinstate his funding contingent upon his agreement not to pursue legal action.
Professors allege Yang previously used AI for his work. A year before the exam, he submitted homework with a note, “rewrite it, make it more casual, like a foreign student wrote it but without AI.” Yang asserts he only used AI to check his English, not generate content, receiving only a warning, not a penalty, for this incident.
Yang’s appeal was denied by the university, prompting him to file state and federal lawsuits against his professors and the University of Minnesota. He seeks $575,000 in damages for the federal lawsuit and $760,000 in the defamation case, alongside a reversal of his expulsion and a public apology. The federal lawsuit also demands $200,000 from the university to discourage future procedural breaches and promote fairness in disciplinary actions.
Yang acknowledged using ChatGPT to draft his lawsuit filings.
In October, another case emerged involving the parents of a student who sued their school following punishment for AI use, alleging it jeopardized their child’s college prospects (source).
