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Charles trans , fuck all GenAI

Edited 14 days ago

AI detection tools are also sycophantic LLMs who are equally as (un)trustworthy as other LLMs. They are also completely un-auditable, just like other LLMs.

Which means that right now, there are students being thrown out of British degree programmes based on vibes. The whole point of the neoliberal academic reforms was meant to be transparency, but now students are expelled based on allegations that can't be evidenced or defended.

Yes, this is actually happening.

This is also a form of algorithmic marking, something we've previously been united against. Students with disposable income have reportedly been signing up to detection services and rewriting to please those algorithms. This is both discriminating against students who can't afford the subscriptions and harming the education of students who can afford it. Again, this is algorithmic marking!

So my call to action for students is to get your union involved in demanding clear criteria for what evidence of original work must be turned in with the assignments. (Also, save your drafts. Save a daily backup or use versioning.)

And my call to action for lecturers is both individual and collective.

* Don't use AI detection tools. Their false positives overwhelming impact non British speakers of English. They are likely illegal under equalities law. You are putting your entire programme at risk if you use them.

* Set clear criteria for what evidence you want from students and make it part of the submission.

* Get your union involved in rejecting detection tools and agreeing on evidence standards.

* If you are going to accuse somebody, your problem student who has to resit is not the one cheating. LLMs do vaguely hit their brief. If you are accusing low performers, this is scapegoating. You need clear criteria for what constitutes a defence.

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@celesteh
poking around at ai detection tools, a number of them also offer a paid ai rewrite so it "passes as human", so like they are financially interested in lying that something is ai written
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