In a recent NBC News article, national reporter Tyler Kingkade reports that students are turning to AI itself to defend themselves against accusations of AI-assisted cheating. Although many professors use AI detection tools to identify misconduct, these systems have been criticized as unreliable and biased, particularly against non-native English speakers. In some cases, students have filed lawsuits against universities after being wrongly accused of using AI in their work.

For the article, Kingkade reported;y spoke with 10 students and teachers. Some students told him that to avoid being accused of AI cheating, they are using “humanizer” tools to alter AI-generated text patterns. He adds that companies like Turnitin and GPTZero have upgraded AI detection software to catch humanized writing and launched applications for students to prove their work.

Students now are trying to prove that they’re human, even though they might have never touched AI ever. So where are we? We’re just in a spiral that will never end.

– Erin Ramirez, an associate professor of education at California State University, Monterey Bay (Source: NBC News)

Kingkade notes that AI detectors and writing-assistance tools are increasingly at odds as concerns about cheating grow on college campuses. Creo, a data science graduate student from Spain who studies AI detection at the University of California, San Diego, was accused of using AI to write a report. To prevent future problems, he now deliberately alters his writing and runs it through AI detectors.

If we write properly, we get accused of being AI — it’s absolutely ridiculous. Long term, I think it’s going to be a big problem. I have to do whatever I can to just show I actually write my homework myself.

– Aldan Creo, a graduate student at University of California San Diego, (source: NBC News)

Below are key highlights from Kingkade’s article, concisely summarized using AI writing tools:

• How could Al make any of that up?: According to Kingkade AI detectors are creating significant stress for students, in some cases pushing them to drop out. Brittany Carr, a student at Liberty University, was accused of using AI despite providing evidence of her writing process. Fearing future accusations, she altered her writing style to avoid detection and ultimately chose to leave the university. Liberty University told NBC News it addresses academic integrity concerns through a process that prioritizes student success. Eric Wang, vice president of research at Quillbot, a company that makes both an AI detector and a “humanizer”, argues that educators should discuss AI use with students rather than automatically deducting points.
• Where’s the line? There is ongoing disagreement over what constitutes acceptable AI use in homework, leading to fragmented understanding among teachers and students. Independent studies show that AI detection tools have mixed accuracy, and experts stress the importance of talking with students flagged by these systems to prevent false accusations of academic dishonesty. Kingkade notes that Turnitin and GPTZero also caution against using their tools as sole evidence of cheating, emphasizing the need for open discussions about AI use.

When we did our first training program for 3,000 teachers, every teacher and every student had a different understanding of what’s acceptable — just the understanding was very fragmented, and then it’s getting even more fragmented with the number of tools growing.

– Edward Tian, CEO and co-founder of GPTZero (source: NBC News)

• A booming humanizer industry: Kingkade highlights how plagiarism-detection company Turnitin is pushing back against the rise of “humanizers”, tools designed to modify text to evade AI detection. The company views these tools as a threat to academic integrity and is exploring responses, including increased monitoring of students during assignments. According to Joseph Thibault, founder of Cursive, an academic integrity software company, demand for humanizers has surged, with 43 such tools drawing 33.9 million website visits in October. Thibault argues that students should focus on maintaining revision histories in Google Docs or Microsoft Word instead of using humanizers. He predicts a shift toward greater oversight and says a new agreement is needed on how much surveillance students are willing to accept in exchange for learning.
• Students are surveilling themselves: Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, developed Authorship, a tool that tracks writing activity in Google Docs and Microsoft Word. Inspired by Marley Stevens’ false accusation of AI use at the University of North Georgia, the tool is designed to help students document their writing process and avoid academic penalties. Stevens reportedly used Grammarly’s extension for spelling and punctuation but was still placed on academic probation. The university declined to comment on her case, citing federal privacy law, and said faculty outline AI-use guidelines in their syllabi, though Stevens said it was difficult to keep track of each professor’s policy.
• Pressure on Colleges: Some students argue that universities should stop using AI detectors because of frequent false positives. Kelsey Auman, a University at Buffalo graduate, launched a petition against the software after being falsely flagged herself. A university official told NBC News that the school does not have an institution-wide policy on AI use, instead leaving decisions to instructors and requiring evidence beyond detector scores for academic dishonesty cases. At UC San Diego, Tricia Bertram Gallant, director of the academic integrity office, advises faculty not to ban AI in unsupervised assessments, noting how difficult its use is to prove. She also calls for government regulation of AI and the academic cheating industry, and for tech companies to make cheating harder.

We’re going to keep track of when you are going to Wikipedia. We’re going to keep track of when Grammarly is making suggestions and you’re taking them, we’re going to keep track of how much time you’ve spent in this paper or how many sessions.

Google has AI embedded into it, Microsoft has AI embedded into it — like literally everything has AI in it. So, in a roundabout way, there’s no way to write a paper without using AI, unless you go to the library and you check books out and use encyclopedias.

– Jenny Maxwell, Superhuman’s head of education (source: NBC News)

Gallant told NBC: “If it’s an unsupervised assessment, don’t bother trying to ban AI. And don’t bother trying to prove AI was used because you end up spending more time doing that. We keep turning on what the academic institutions need to do to fix problems that they didn’t create.”

Acknowledgement: The summary section of this post was generated using AI writing tools as part of my experimental learning process. For more information, checkout the original article listed below.

Related Resource Link

• To avoid accusations of AI cheating, college students are turning to AI | NBC News
• Humanize AI text | Humanize AI