Students aren’t only just scared of getting a C because their introduction was weak, now they are scared of getting an F because they used an em dash.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been quickly implemented into society’s daily life. It is in almost every headline, businesses are funding billions of dollars into it and it is being used to create half the art, videos and advertisements that are seen.
With the ease that AI brings to regular, mundane tasks, it has naturally found its way into the search engines of the majority of students worldwide. While some are using it to help them be more efficient, others are using it as a crutch that does all of their work for them.
On the flip side, teachers have been using it as a crutch for themselves. Grading papers becomes much easier when you can do it in one minute instead of 30. Additionally, AI checkers are being used more and more, and as time goes on, studies are coming out showing the inaccuracy of these checkers.
“Those are not accurate, according to my colleagues,” said Virginia Crisco, co-director of the first-year writing program. “I have never actually used one, but I don’t really need one.”
Crisco works with new teachers to help evaluate if their students are using AI.
“You talk about being a digital native, before the internet there were ways to evaluate if a student was plagiarizing, so we just have to go back to those ways,” Crisco said.
The accuracy of these AI checkers have been criticized by students and teachers for years, and it has created environments where students are afraid that they’re going to get wrongfully accused without the ability to defend themselves.
According to Bao Johri, vice president for information technology at Fresno State, individuals that are using Turnitin’s AI checker are saying that it is not 100% accurate.
“I think we have to take an approach where a faculty would pause and have a conversation with a student and really hear the student out,” Johri said.
While some professors use sites like Turnitin, GPTZero and Originality.ai, some teachers use other methods to see whether or not their students are using AI.
Take JJ Hernandez, a lecturer in the first-year writing program who teaches introductory classes like English 5A, for example.
“I use AI checkers sometimes. I don’t think they are super accurate, but I have to use them,” Hernandez said. “I know people by their syntax, if I have a suspicion that they are using AI then I’ll run it through some AI checkers. If it comes back a little bit positive, it’s usually not a sign, but if it says 100%, I would say it’s more of an indicator.”
Even though Hernandez uses AI checkers if he suspects a student, he takes other measures to make sure he doesn’t have to rely on it, like making them do in-person writing assignments with pen and paper.
Hernandez says that he likes to have conversations with his students if he suspects AI use. He wants his students to defend themselves if wrongfully accused, and has them take measures like having them turn on their version history or making them explain their writing.
“I don’t fail them, but I do think it’s academically dishonest to use something else to write something that you’re supposed to do,” Hernandez said.
A teacher like Hernandez may not want to use AI to check students’ work, but in this day and age, students force teachers’ hands to use these checkers when they use AI to write their papers.
However, due to the inaccuracy of AI checkers, professors like Hernandez are finding better ways to see if a student is using AI.
“Once you start putting their stuff through AI checkers that trust gets kind of messed up,” Hernandez said. “They start to think, ‘Oh he thinks I’m using AI’ and that’s not a positive thing. I try to build a rapport with my students beforehand, so if I ever have to have a conversation, it’s simple.”
While some teachers like Hernandez use AI as a last resort, some teachers use it as a way to scare their students. A student, who chose to remain anonymous, said they had a situation where a professor accused a student of using AI in front of the entire class, but never singled out the student or talked to them.
This student chose to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation from the professor, and due to the size of the class. This professor is not currently teaching the class.
“He continued to threaten us, saying that someone was using it and that he was a part of the AI board,” the student said. “He would threaten that he would take it up to the school board, but he would say this to the whole class instead of just pulling aside the student who supposedly did it.”
The student said the environment that the teacher created was hostile, especially in an honors class where students already have to worry about so much. They added that, had the professor just talked to the student alone, nothing would be a problem, but the professor used it as a way to make people fear his grading, which caused them to second guess their own writing.
“As a student, having AI write your whole essay is ridiculous, because then the people that don’t use it get accused of using it,” the student said. “I think for professors, if you’re using AI to look over your students’ work, you’re just being lazy.”
In July 2025, the university released its student guidelines that tell students to use AI at their professors discretion, and that they shouldn’t ever try to turn it in as their own work.
Additionally, the California State University system has invested into paid student ChatGPT accounts, since students are being told that using AI efficiency is what they will need in the future.
AI leaves students and teachers at a crossroads. For the student, they may not use AI for moral reasons, but they are told that they have to use it to get a job.
For the teacher, they don’t want to be hypocritical in using AI to check papers for AI, but then, how are they supposed to tell if students continue to use AI?
