Expelled student sues U. Minnesota after claims of AI use
The University of Minnesota is being sued by a former Ph.D. student who claims he was unfairly expelled after professors accused him of using artificial intelligence to write his essays.
TechSpot reported that Haishan Yang claims his professors conspired against him, claiming he broke university rules in using generative AI tools last summer to assist with his preliminary exam, which includes writing three essays over the course of eight hours.
All four faculty graders noted that Yang’s essays contained irrelevant details and acronyms not commonly used in his field, but often used by tools like ChatGPT. Yang claimed that current methods used to check for use of AI are unreliable and biased.
“I was struck by the similarities between the two that seemed extremely unlikely to be coincidental,” Peter Huckfeldt, a health economics professor, wrote in a letter to a university hearing committee.
Yang, who claims he used ChatGPT to help file his lawsuits, is seeking more than $1 million, plus an apology and reversal of his expulsion. Professors claim Yang had previously been caught using AI to complete his homework.
