Professor's Misuse of AI Software Causes Diploma Delay for Texas A&M University-Commerce Graduates
Via Rolling Stone
Summary
At Texas A&M University-Commerce, a graduating class faced diploma delays in 2023 after professor Jared Mumm used ChatGPT in an improper attempt to detect AI-generated writing in students' final essays. Mumm fed student submissions into ChatGPT and asked the chatbot whether it had authored the text — a method that is fundamentally unreliable, as ChatGPT is a text generator, not a plagiarism detector, and will often falsely claim authorship of human-written text.
Several graduating seniors who had already walked at commencement received a temporary incomplete grade, delaying their official diplomas. The university investigated, cleared multiple students of wrongdoing, and confirmed that no students ultimately failed the course. The incident drew national attention as an early high-profile example of educators misapplying AI tools in academic integrity proceedings.
