Allegation of exam cheating with AI stirs debate

MELİKE ÇALKAP - ISTANBUL

The claim that a senior law student at a private university in Istanbul used artificial intelligence to cheat in his exam was detected by asking an artificial intelligence application has caused controversy.

Abdullah Alpaslan, a 21-year-old, is a senior student at Istanbul Bilgi University. He faced a disciplinary penalty for allegedly cheating on an exam in the spring semester in 2023.

He was alleged to have cheated by using ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence application, in a later online exam for the same course.

Alparslan, who brought the trial to court, said that he thought he would be able to attend school again after the court issued a stay of execution, and that he had paid the annual tuition fee in advance.

"The university administration asked the artificial intelligence to check my exam paper and asked, 'Did you write this?' and it said, 'Yes, I did.' So they say they proved that I cheated based on this,” Alpaslan had said in his objection in court.

After the school appealed to the court, he learned that his eligibility had been suspended and that he would not be able to get his money back.

The student, who described this financially difficult process on his social media account, received millions of views and thousands of comments.

"This will be my last message as a note to both my family and my country. I have thoughts of suicide in my mind,” he said in his post.

Professor Dr. Ege Yazgan, the vice-rector of Istanbul Bilgi University, stated that the reason the student got such a harsh penalty is because he had previously committed the same disciplinary offense.

The vice-rector also mentioned that they would refund the money the student had paid.

"The student will be able to continue his education at our school once his suspension is over, as he is still officially a student," he said.

Professor Dr. Zülfikar Kaan Deniz from Ankara University said that it does not make much sense to determine the method of cheating just by asking an application.

"At this point, the same question should be posed to other AI tools, including ChatGPT," he added.