Florida High School Says Students In Elite Academic Program Are Cheating On Essays Using ChatGPT

A Florida High school that is known for its prestigious academic programs told parents that the students were Cheating ChatGPT is used to create essays

According to Email Students in Cape Coral High School’s International Baccalaureate Program (IB) are being sent to their parents by the program coordinator. They are accused of using the AI Chat software is used to create essays. While school officials and IB program directors have condemned the use IB software, students insist that the software is commonplace.

“Your senior students are in the process of submitting rough and final drafts of their official IB internal assessments in their various subject areas,” In the letter, Katelyn A. Uhler was Cape Coral IB Program Coordinator. “Recently the use of AI generators has become a major concern. The use of AI generators is a violation of our academic integrity policy… There have been some IB papers submitted that are questionable in a few ways including being very different styles of writing from previously submitted papers. I have been going into the senior Theory of Knowledge classes with CCHS administration to address this concern and outline the consequences.”

Turnitin, an automated software program used by the school to detect plagiarism in their papers, is used. Uhler explained that AI-generated papers can avoid this issue because they produce different outputs twice. Instead, the school is using AI detectors and investigating individual students’ laptops to verify their work.

Uhler stated that she requested students to contact her privately to resolve the problem quickly. Students could face more severe consequences if they don’t. IB teachers must authenticate student work to complete the program. IB students must complete the program to receive their high school diploma.

Uhler encouraged parents to talk with their children about the dangers of AI-generated work.

Officials from both the School District in Lee County and International Baccalaureate condemned the use AI for creating work. “As part of our ongoing cybersecurity efforts, our Information Services team continues to strengthen Chromebook security features to block the use of AI from aiding any student work,” The district spoke to NBC2 local news station.

“The use of ChatGPT and any other method which results in a student submitting work that is not their own is against the IB’s academic integrity policy,” The IB was also added.

Students at the school said that they were aware of ChatGPT.

“I’ve heard a lot about it,” said student Sophia Fallacara. “Like, all of the seniors, they’re all talking about it.”

“There’s like a whole controversy about it,” Michael Clayton is an additional student.

Furman University Professor Furman warns that AI is the future. Future of plagiarism. “Today, I turned in the first plagiarist I’ve caught using A.I. software to write her work, and I thought some people might be curious about the details,” philosophy professor Darren Hick wrote on Facebook, pointing out ChatGPT specifically.

“Administrations are going to have to develop standards for dealing with these kinds of cases, and they’re going to have to do it FAST,” Hick also added. “This is too new. But it’s going to catch on. It would have taken my student about 5 minutes to write this essay using ChatGPT. Expect a flood, people, not a trickle.”