“Guilty until proven innocent”: Tylar Macintyre and the ethics of using A.I. detectors to verify students’ writing

Generative A.I. tools are rapidly evolving, and universities are quickly developing guidelines for how – and if – students should use them in the classroom. But what do students think? This op-ed, written by first-year college student Tylar Macintyre, responds to the growing use of A.I. detector tools to determine whether students have illicitly used generative A.I. chatbots to compose their writing.

Tylar Macintyre, "A.I. Detectors Are the Smoking Guns That Prove Nothing." Venture, 5 March 2025

 

1. Macintyre describes how teachers turn to A.I. detectors to check if a student’s writing is their own. What’s the central problem with this approach, according to Macintyre? What are the ethical issues with using A.I. detectors on student writing?
   
2. Which groups of students are at a higher risk of being wrongly accused of using generative A.I. in unauthorized ways? Why is their writing flagged at a higher rate than other students?
3. Macintyre’s argument draws on his perspective as a student. What is another view that could be part of this conversation about A.I. detectors and academic integrity? Find a place in Macintyre’s essay where he could insert this naysayer perspective. Use the templates from Chapter 6 to name this alternative view and introduce it fairly. How might Macintyre respond to this naysayer?
4. So what? Who cares? Macintyre explains the consequences for students whose writing is falsely “flagged” by A.I. detectors. Who else, besides these students, is affected by the increasingly prevalent use of A.I. detectors by educators? How does the use of A.I. detectors in education affect students, teachers, and classroom environments more broadly? You can draw on your own experiences in your response.
5. Some have argued that there is a new “cheating vibe” on college campuses fueled in part by online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid development of generative A.I. Read this op-ed by a student at Washington University in St. Louis, who argues that academic integrity standards need to be redefined for the realities of the 21st century. What two main reasons does he give to support his argument? Respond to his argument: do you agree, disagree, or both?