this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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Fuck AI

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A Massachusetts couple claims that their son's high school attempted to derail his future by giving him detention and a bad grade on an assignment he wrote using generative AI.

An old and powerful force has entered the fraught debate over generative AI in schools: litigious parents angry that their child may not be accepted into a prestigious university.

In what appears to be the first case of its kind, at least in Massachusetts, a couple has sued their local school district after it disciplined their son for using generative AI tools on a history project. Dale and Jennifer Harris allege that the Hingham High School student handbook did not explicitly prohibit the use of AI to complete assignments and that the punishment visited upon their son for using an AI tool—he received Saturday detention and a grade of 65 out of 100 on the assignment—has harmed his chances of getting into Stanford University and other elite schools.

Yeah, I'm 100% with the school on this one.

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[–] ninjabard@lemmy.world 190 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He didn't do the assignment. Those parents can get bent.

[–] JizzmasterD@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago

But I heard the kid was responsible for writing all the material the AI was trained on!

/s

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 104 points 1 month ago (3 children)

"a grade of 65 out of 100 on the assignment—has harmed his chances of getting into Stanford University and other elite schools."

No, using AI tools harmed his chances...

[–] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 month ago

Ehh, the AI did its job as a tool.

The kid harmed his chances by being a tool.

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[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 89 points 1 month ago (2 children)

They didn't even give him the 0 he deserved?

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 39 points 1 month ago

Right? He didn't earn the knowledge for himself (which is the whole point of school) so he was lucky, IMO, to even get that undeserved 65.

[–] frosty99c@midwest.social 24 points 1 month ago (5 children)

It's been a while since teachers were allowed to give out 0s in highschool. When I taught 12 years ago the lowest I was allowed to give was a 65. Even if nothing was turned in.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can't imagine how bad of a student I would have been if "literally don't do it" was a 65. That's insane.

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[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I imagine this must depend on the location of the school in question. Im in my mid 20s, so my high school experience was more recent than 12 years ago, but I remember getting quite a few zeros (was an absolutely horrible procrastinator who would tend to respond to the stress of having a due date coming up by doing anything else to not think about the source of said stress, which led to a lot of simply not turned in schoolwork)

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[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 70 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What fucking snowflakes. When I was a kid, if you had someone write your paper for you, you got a 0 for the assignment. When you go to college, they'll fail you out of the course for that shit (because its cheating).

The only ones harming this kid's future is the parents trying to coddle their kid and protect them from the (rather light) consequences of their actions.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago (3 children)

They want this kid to get into Stanford?? 🤣🤣🤣

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

He cheats from young. Great ivy shit material. Maybe if he rapes somebody he’ll get to be a supreme court justice.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

Liar, cheater, and lawsuit wielder? Perfect Ivy League material. Thats how political and managerial elites are made from.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] moody@lemmings.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If they had the connections, then the grade here wouldn't matter.

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[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 month ago (5 children)

... allege that the Hingham High School student handbook did not explicitly prohibit the use of AI to complete assignments.

These are the type of people that force manufacturers to put wildly insane warnings of what not to do with their products.

Idiots. The entire family.

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Way to Streisand Effect the incident for potential universities.

"Our kid will cheat and we'll sue you for calling him out" looks great on a college application.

[–] r4venw@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago

No no, see, what ivy league colleges will see is "we have 'fuck you' money and we're willing to blow it on our kid's education".

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hope these parents get their legs kicked out from under them. The kid cheated and got caught.

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

These kids need to learn what "fuck around and find out" means by themselves. Sheltering them from consequences does a lot of damage later on.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

High-tech fancy plagiarism is still plagiarism.

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[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago (3 children)

OK, the parents are suing. And the district already filed a motion to dismiss.

Please understand, the world isn't a nuts as the headlines tell us. Judges toss frivolous lawsuits all day long. We only hear about the nut cases because they're nut cases. Money says this case is never heard.

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 month ago (26 children)

Bad parenting. Not only did they not talk to their kid about what constitutes honourable academic conduct, not only did they not talk to their kid about the pitfalls of using generative AI, especially in an academic context, they are now teaching their brat that the proper response to fucking up is to blame the rules, to blame the school, to blame other people. Bad parents.

I wonder, have these people no shame?

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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Unless the school used one of those ai detection services that are known for giving false positives, I'll side with the school.

[–] settxy@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The kid used AI. The lawsuit doesn't argue they didn't and are being unfairly punished. They're arguing that there weren't any rules explicitly saying they couldn't use AI.

Sounds like rich parents mad at the world cuz their kid fucked up. How can they ruin our perfect Billy's life over a decision he made, knowing full well it was wrong!!!! Now he might have to go to a less prestigious college... Boohoo!

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[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

My wife teaches, and she can spot the AI essays at a distance, it's not hard.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 27 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Looks like the handbook does explicitly mention it:

Academic Integrity: Cheating and Plagiarism To cheat is to act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage. In an academic setting, cheating consists of such acts as communicating with other student(s) by talking or writing during a test or quiz; unauthorized use of technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), during an assessment; or any other such action that invalidates the result of the assessment or other assignment. Plagiarism consists of the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author, including Artificial Intelligence, and the representation of such as one’s own work. Plagiarism and cheating in any form are considered disciplinary matters to be addressed by the school. A teacher apprehending one or more students cheating on any graded assignment, quiz or test will record a failing grade for that assignment for each student involved. The teacher will inform the parent(s) of the incident and assistant principal who will add the information to the student’s disciplinary file. The assistant principal may take further action if they deem it warranted. See Code of Discipline.

From https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/4900/HHS/4719901/Student_Handbook_Code_Discipline_2024_2025.pdf

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (7 children)

This is one reason why people don't want to be teachers and why education is going down the toilet. Entitled parents who run to lawyers in our hyperlitigious society every time their spawn is slightly inconvenienced.

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[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

These fucking dickbrain parents. What do they think, they win the lawsuit and Stanford doesn’t realize the kid took a shortcut?

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[–] hardcoreufo@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

None of my friend's parents growing up would sue the school, but they were all the type of parents to go in and argue with teachers over grades. It was usually to go from a B to an A or some bullshit.

My parents on the other hand were more like, you fucked that up didn't you if I didn't do well on something. I would have been mortified if they argued about grades on my behalf.

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Great job parents, now your kid will learn nothing from this teachable moment.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 18 points 1 month ago

Kid learns nothing by cheating on the assignment.

Well, at least the bad grade and detention will be a teachable moment.

Parents: Hold my daytime wine.

[–] ilost7489@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Perhaps it is also that LLMs are horrible at making any kind of argument and probably wrote a shit paper, never mind the plagiarism? Frankly a 65 is a high mark for doing something like this

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He should have gotten a zero.

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[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 17 points 1 month ago

Parents with more money than sense.

[–] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

They think their AI dependent son is qualified to go to an elite school.

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[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Article doesn't say if he used AI to wholesale write his paper, which obviously is cheating, or if he used it as a resource like Google. Some details would be nice here.

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