UNG student on academic probation for alleged AI-use partners with Grammarly

Last month, we told you about a University of North Georgia student put on academic probation after she used Grammarly on her paper. Now, we're hearing from leaders at Grammarly who say it was a misunderstanding due to faulty AI detection software.

Grammarly use lands UNG student on academic probation

In February, UNG junior Marley Stevens found out she was put on academic probation after her paper was flagged for plagiarism for using AI.

Stevens said she used Grammarly to proofread her paper, as she had many times before.

"She used Grammarly as if she had a tutor helping her look at spelling, and grammar, and syntax, and overall clarity of her writing," said Jenny Maxwell, the head of Grammarly for Education.

Maxwell said while the company does have generative AI capabilities, which can create new content on its own, that's not the tool Stevens used. She said the faulty flagging was likely due to issues with AI detection systems.

"Plenty of studies have shown tools like this flag text as AI-generated even when no AI —Grammarly's or otherwise! — was used," a spokesperson from Grammarly added.

Is there a way to detect AI?

"AI detection as a whole, as a software entity, is faulty," Maxwell said. "It's not been a perfected software. We're really new. If you think about it, generative AI has been on the market roughly 18 months."

She also noted the system has warnings for students who do choose to use generative AI, as well as ways to cite generative AI-use on assignments.

"This is a rising concern, and it should be for students to make sure they understand what is the school's policy, what is the faculty member's sort of policy around this, and making sure that those are consistent," Maxwell said.

"These tools are here. They're not going away, and education has a moral responsibility to teach students how to use these tools both responsibly and effectively," she added.

Now, Grammarly has partnered with Stevens to create a series of educational videos on Grammarly-usage in schools.

"I really didn't think that this was ever going to be as big as it ended up being," Stevens said. "I hope that they kind of take away that Grammarly was not the problem, it's just the faulty AI detectors that are causing issues."

The University of North Georgia sent FOX 5 Atlanta a statement. Here's an excerpt:

"Our faculty communicate specific guidelines regarding the use of AI for various classes and those guidelines are included in the class syllabi and the inappropriate use of AI is addressed in our Student Code of Conduct.

"Everything we do at UNG is grounded in our shared value – students come first, always.  This guides all our decision-making with no exceptions. All matters involving academic integrity are handled seriously and with our shared value throughout the entire process."