College Student Complains About Software School Implemented To Prevent Them From Using AI To Write Essays
Does he have a right to be upset?
antoniodiaz | Shutterstock Going into the upcoming school year, schools are cracking down on the use of AI amidst the ongoing conversation of whether it's considered cheating or not. Though some argue it's just a tool that supports learning, others wonder if students who use it are even learning at all. One student is opposed to the new software he is facing this school year, and he believes it will prevent him and other students from using AI at all.
While there's no denying that AI is here to stay and students need to be educated in how to incorporate its use into their work, the biggest issue this student seems to have is how the school software prevents him from pasting ChatGPT text directly into his essays. If the assignment is to use your brain and write, this doesn't actually seem like a bad thing. And maybe the more important question we should be asking is why students would rather cheat their way through college than actually learn something?
A college student took to social media to complain about the new software his school implemented to prevent students from using AI to write essays.
Sawyer, a student on TikTok who strongly advocates for the use of AI, posted a recent video about his discovery of the new software his school is imposing on students, called GPTZero. He opened the video by saying, "So, they just made it pretty much impossible to use ChatGPT or any kind of AI in college."
He explained that this new software generates a report that details your entire writing process. It can even show a visual playback of every time text is added or removed, and notes exactly how much each user contributed to the document. That means an instructor would be able to see if a large chunk of text was copied and pasted from an AI chatbot.
The software also analyzes how natural the writing process is, and if it detects human-like typing patterns such as "pauses, errors, and proof of effort." Sawyer complained, "You can't even paste in AI and then edit it anymore."
Most people were amused by the student's reaction to the new software and were critical of his reliance on AI.
Many commenters were supportive of the implementation of the new AI-catching software. One user joked, "Oh no. I have to write my own papers & do my own research for college. I have to actually put effort into earning my college degree."
Others tried to convince Sawyer that it would benefit him and his education in the long run and force him to strengthen his learning and thinking processes. Another user wrote, "Not using AI in your formal education teaches you how to sift through information and think critically about it and properly source your information."
Some did acknowledge the negative aspects of these types of software, however, and how they're far from foolproof. "I hate the 'how natural it sounds' feature. I’m autistic. Everything I say sounds like it was written by AI."
As NewYork Magazine pointed out, AI use on college campuses isn't the outlier anymore. It's the norm. Cheating has become so rampant, starting in high school, that these students are literally dependent on the apps to do their assignments because they can't actually do the work on their own. They don't know how.
Troy Jollimore, a poet, philosopher, and Cal State Chico ethics professor, told the outlet, "Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate. Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s."
AI-detecting software remains a controversial topic, with many still questioning its role in education.
While AI detection is becoming more prominent in schools, it's not always perfect. There are always risks that a student could be wrongly accused. Victor Lee, an associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, said, "They are fallible, you can work around them. And there is a serious harm risk associated in that an incorrect accusation is a very serious accusation to make."
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The software is also very expensive, though many schools consider it a worthwhile cost. So far in 2025, the California State University system has spent over $1.1 million on AI-detecting software, such as the popular program Turnitin. However, some believe that this money would be better spent elsewhere, including Robbie Torney, the senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media. He said, "It’s probably better to invest in training for professors and teachers, and also creating some frameworks for universities to message to students how they can and can’t use AI, rather than trying to use a surveillance methodology to detect AI in student writing."
What's truly worrisome, however, isn't that college kids are willingly cheating without a second thought; it's that the use of AI, or rather the growing dependency on AI, is impacting intelligence as a whole. As an article in The Guardian noted, critical thinking skills are declining, and the Flynn Effect, the idea that each generation gets smarter than the last, is no longer a guarantee. In fact, in recent years, intelligence hasn't stagnated. It's reversed.
There's certainly no clear-cut answer for how to move forward at this point, but let's part with this food for thought from psychologist Robert Sternberg at Cornell University: "The greatest worry in these times of generative AI is not that it may compromise human creativity or intelligence, but that it already has."
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
