A college junior shared with The Post her experience of being placed on academic probation due to allegations from college anti-plagiarism software, which mistakenly flagged her for using AI to write a paper—a claim she vehemently denies.
Marley Stevens, a 21-year-old student majoring in human services and delivery administration at the University of North Georgia Dahlonega Campus, utilized Grammarly, a browser extension for spell-checking and punctuation correction, to review a criminal justice paper she submitted in October.
However, despite her efforts, the assignment was failed automatically after being identified for AI utilization by the anti-plagiarism tool TurnItIn.com. Consequently, she lost a scholarship and faced academic probation following a disciplinary hearing.
The anti-plagiarism software, integrated into the college’s submission system, raised concerns among students like Stevens, prompting her to caution fellow peers nationwide about the risks of being wrongly accused of academic dishonesty through indiscriminate AI detection.
Further Insights
Stevens expressed her dismay, stating, “I worked really hard on this paper,” referring to her two-page analysis on rehabilitation and re-entry rates within the criminal justice system.
Initially taken aback by the notification from her criminal justice professor, Robert Ellison, informing her of the AI-related issue in her paper, Stevens felt as though she was being targeted unfairly.
Ellison’s email in October highlighted the positive AI response detected in the paper through TurnItIn, resulting in a zero grade for Stevens. She even shared a screenshot of the email on TikTok to shed light on her predicament.
Despite maintaining a 3.0 GPA prior to the incident, Stevens clarified that her use of Grammarly was solely for correcting spelling and punctuation errors, not for content generation or manipulation.
In subsequent exchanges with Ellison, it was revealed that almost the entire paper, except for a few concluding sentences, was flagged as AI-generated content. Stevens attributed this anomaly to Grammarly’s spell-checking functionality and emphasized the distinction from more advanced AI applications like ChatGPT.
Despite her plea to redo the paper and salvage her academic standing, Stevens found herself facing the consequences of alleged cheating, culminating in her placement on academic probation following a hearing with the dean of student integrity.
Subsequently, a campus-wide advisory was issued, cautioning students about the potential pitfalls of utilizing online tools with generative AI capabilities, which could trigger plagiarism detection mechanisms.
While considering her options, including a possible transfer to another institution—a financially burdensome prospect—Stevens continued to advocate for awareness among students regarding the intersection of tools like Grammarly and AI in academic settings.
As her story gained traction on social media platforms like TikTok, Grammarly reached out to Stevens for further details on her experience, prompting her to advise fellow students to proactively engage with professors on the nuances of AI tools like Grammarly.
Despite the challenges she faced, Stevens remains resilient, juggling multiple jobs to support her education and offering valuable insights to her peers navigating similar academic landscapes.
