Boston University Student Demands Tuition Refund After Professor Uses AI

In February of this year, Ella Stapleton, then a senior at the Northeastern University Business School in Massachusetts, noticed signs of AI-generated content in the course materials and discovered that some of them had been produced by the chatbot ChatGPT. Midway through a lecture on organizational behavior, there was a dialogue between the professor and the chatbot, in which the professor asked for a detailed explanation of leadership models. The text also contained numerous spelling errors. Other indicators of AI use were also found-for example, some people depicted in a presentation had extra arms.

Ella Stapleton was not pleased. Moreover, she claimed that the professor, Rick Arrowood, prohibited students from using AI, while he himself used neural networks without even reviewing the material.

The student filed an official complaint with Northeastern University and demanded a refund of her tuition for the course, which amounted to over $8,000. The university administration rejected her request.

Professor Rick Arrowood has been teaching for nearly twenty years. He admitted that he used AI tools to "refresh" his teaching materials. For this purpose, he employed ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gamma. According to him, at first glance, the lecture and presentation he created looked great. However, in hindsight, he regretted not reviewing them more carefully. The professor expressed remorse over the incident and emphasized that instructors must use AI with great caution and focus, and must also inform students when it is being used.

Northeastern University published an official document outlining the institution's policy on artificial intelligence. It states that whenever neural networks are used, the data sources must be cited and the information must be checked for accuracy. At the same time, university representatives stated that they use AI to enhance all aspects of education and to conduct more in-depth research.

However, this is not an isolated case. Students across numerous American universities have raised concerns about AI-generated course materials, lectures, and presentations. For instance, last fall, a student named Mary at Southern New Hampshire University wrote an essay for an anthropology course and received an A. In the comments section, she noticed that the professor had accidentally published a transcript of his interaction with a chatbot, in which he asked ChatGPT to evaluate the student's work and provide a positive review. Mary is convinced the professor never read her essay.

Professors, on the other hand, argue that chatbots help them manage overwhelming workloads and automate many processes. Nevertheless, most agree that the information provided by AI must be verified and the resulting materials carefully edited.