Parents Sue After Son Uses AI for School Essay

A lawsuit filed by the parents of a Massachusetts high school senior could turn out to be an important one on the artificial intelligence landscape. The crux of the complaint from Jennifer and Dale Harris: that their son was unfairly punished for using AI to research and draft an outline for a history class essay, and that those punishments have placed him at a disadvantage with college applications, reports NBC News. The parents' complaint notes that the trouble for the unnamed student started when he was working with another student last year in his AP US history class at Hingham High School on a project about basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

When the class' teacher discovered the student had used AI while working on the assignment, he gave the boy a D on it, which lowered his class grade and his overall GPA, per the suit. The student was also sent to detention and was denied entry to the National Honor Society, per the complaint. But family attorney Peter Farrell tells NBC that the boy used AI just to do research ("akin to a Google search," per the outlet) and create an outline, still writing the paper himself. The high school's student handbook notes the "unauthorized use of technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI)" could be considering cheating and a form of plagiarism, although it doesn't specify how or under what circumstances AI might be able to be used, per ABC News.

The Harrises' complaint also notes that the AI reference in the handbook was added only after their son had been disciplined. "I'd ... like them to put in place an AI policy that makes sense—that the teachers understand that they then can articulate to the students," Jennifer Harris tells WCVB. Meanwhile, the Harrises say the disciplinary measures imposed upon their son have kept him out of the running for some of the colleges he'd hoped to get into.

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"He got a perfect score on the ACTs and he's looking to go to Stanford or MIT or some of the top schools," says Jennifer Harris. "He's missed the opportunity already for rolling admissions." "This is a fundamental threat to his future," Farrell adds, per NBC. The suit— which has been filed against the student's history teacher, faculty members in the school district, and a local disciplinary panel—accuses the defendants of "threats, intimidation, coercion, bullying, harassment, and intimation of reprisals." (More artificial intelligence stories.)