Should I say something about this?

[Throwaway887]

It’s more a WWYD than AIBU but here goes -

My eldest child is 20 and finishing doing their A levels. They’ve left a huge assignment til the last minute but claims they weren’t told it was due until two days before.

Apparently ‘everyone else’ is rushing to get this one done due to the late notice but i have no way to verify this.

Child is autistic and struggles massively with PDA and it could honestly be either or. They lie regularly about this sort of thing to cover what they haven’t been able to manage, but usually does very well with studies, gets assignments and presentations done on time and does well in exams and so on.

As it’s so late in the game I’ve been informed that they will be using AI to partially complete the assignment. “It isn’t a big deal, everyone else has been using this stuff the whole course” which they seem to think means they can do it too.

I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about this due to the fact that it’s cheating first and foremost, and that they really don’t need to as they are more than capable of actually doing it.

I don’t want them to ruin their chances by cheating. I’m sure there must be guidance in place to recognise the use of AI. I have said that you don’t get ahead by cheating and will likely be found out to which I was greeted ‘Everyone who’s ACTUALLY on the course is doing it, but thanks for your expert advice’

The last part really pissed me off if I’m honest.

I’ve half a mind to get in touch with their tutors and let them know what’s been said regarding the use of AI but I don’t want to cock up the other students results and I really don’t want to set my child back who’s studied and struggled so hard in main stream for this one thing.

I am Audhd myself so am concerned I might be being too intense about this.

Would you do anything about this or just let it go as a ‘one off’ however unjust I find it?

I would leave them to it and if the college works it out then they can take the consequences

Let it go

Apparently, it's very common amongst students to use AI.

Then they run a plagiarism check before submitting the assignment.

Not great but it is the current practice.

He won't have been given 2 days notice.

His work will likely be put through an Ai/plagiarism checker and he will potentially be disqualified from that paper, the whole exam or all his A levels if they are all with the same board.

This is kind of the point though. They have multiple uni offers and have accepted a place dependent on results. Not to mention accommodation booked and paid for the first year which we would lose, all for one paper that they can’t be arsed to do properly. They’ve struggled their entire school career to do well in this one (pretty prestigious) area. If it all comes crashing down now for cutting one corner I honestly don’t know how they would cope.

I would not purposefully cause a problem for my child (unless what they are doing is criminal); I’d step back and let them make their own mistake as i fully suspect this will be found out

What are the penalties for plagiarism/using AI? It's going to be very obvious to the markers if it's used. Sadly younger/less experienced adults will think that what the AI spits out sounds impressive/ convincing.

Has your dc realised that if everyone is doing it then it's going to be exponentially more obvious than if one person is?! And that's just in one school/college...

Yes so tell them what I have said can happen.

If they don't want that to happen they should step up. If they want to take that risk then it is I am afraid on them. If you don't want that to happen you need to tell them the potential consequences.

What subject A level and what board and I will try to find links to make it easier for you to prove it to him if you would like?

Here is the starting point - the JCQ rules (who set rules for the exam board)

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/JCQ-AI-Use-in-Assessments-Protecting-the-Integrity-of-Qualifications.pdf

Better he gets caught now and has to defer uni while he retakes than thinking it's ok, getting caught at uni and getting kicked off the course after a year.....

This is between your child and the exam board.

While I appreciate they're doing A-levels and might have struggled a bit, regardless of their ASD your child is 20 and a grown adult. They're not a teenage sixth former any more. If they were a 20-year-old at university, you'd have no input into their study habits or coursework performance, and I think you need to take a step back and let them make their own decisions on this sort of thing.

And really, telling their tutors isn't going to stop them using AI anyway, as they've clearly already decided that they won't get caught and are going to press on regardless.

I'd also add that there's a whole spectrum of 'using AI' for this sort of thing. There's 'typing in a prompt and generating a whole essay to submit unchanged' and there's also 'using AI to generate some ideas and then working from those' which is very different.

I would ignore and let him get on. With it

I have to agree with the others, they have to work it out for themselves, you can just make them aware of the risks of running through a checker.

Also AI is in essence a pattern matcher and doesn't 'know' the answer, in my experience it has a tendency to make stuff up if there is no answer to hand, so you have to know your stuff to use it. So don't completely rely on it.

Also AI is in essence a pattern matcher and doesn't 'know' the answer, in my experience it has a tendency to make stuff up if there is no answer to hand

Absolutely, I've had it totally make stuff up about very simple maths questions.
Does your DC think there's something in AI that makes it objectively 'correct'?

Also, it only takes one other student who is pissed off about this to tip off the course tutors.

Why have you already booked and paid for accommodation? This would be allocated after results and place confirmed.

It’s private accommodation.

I was an A level teacher for a long time. There's no way he'd have two days' notice, but then you know that. They should have been told back in September what was involved for the year ahead and the teacher should have seen drafts of the work. If he has PDA it sounds as though he's committed to not doing what he was told to do.

Is there a foundation year available for his degree? If so I would wait a while and then talk about a "friend" whose son did a foundation degree instead of resitting his A levels. It just means doing a four-year degree, though if you mess up the foundation year you might not get onto the degree part.

In the end though I think you have to stand back and try not to get too stressed. Luckily he'll be going into accommodation and you won't have to be the one telling him what to do. Not long until September!

Let his get on with it. He will reap the benefits or the consequences.

Surely this is a basic "difference between right and wrong" parenting moment?
You are not doing him any favours letting him use AI.

And I cant believe so many other posters are all for it. It is cheating, nothing else.

This. If they are 20 years old and planning to go to University they are an adult and need to be taking responsibility for their own actions. Leaving an assignment so late in the day is irresponsible, as is planning to use AI, but that is their decision. There comes a time when helicopter parenting has to stop.

I would stay out of flagging it with the school. If your child wants to cheat, nobody can stop that, its it's up to them.

It would be horrendous for them to miss their chance at uni because of cheating, also awful for you to lose all that money on accommodation but hopefully it doesn't come to that.

It's all a risk your child is willing to take.

Terribly disrespectful to potentially cheat away an opportunity that your parents paid for.

The markers will be able to tell if 'everyone else' is using AI, so I wouldn't dob them in.

Your DS will only 'get away' with it if he uses AI appropriately (eg uses it as a starting point/ for structure/to clarify his understanding/it to signpost him to more relevant materials.)

You could help him with this, maybe and give him some pointers (eg don't copy and paste. Don't use their Americanization spellings - or the Oxford commas. If he only has the free version, (3), then the references will all be wrong etc.....

If he generally gets things in on time, you could choose to help him make the best of his AI experience as it sounds as if you would like him to get to uni. (He deffo won't get away with using direct AI there - but it is not a complete no no and can be helpful if approached in the right way)

My DD has learning difficulties for eg and finds AI really helpful in breaking down concepts -'explain this for a 10 year old' kind of prompt. So it's not all bad....

If he gets caught out and just copies and pastes, then he has not used it in a clever way.

As someone upthread has already mentioned - there's different ways of using AI. Obviously generating and copying a whole assignment is a fool's errand and will be picked up, but AI can also be used to generate ideas, create a framework, organise the writers own thoughts, suggest hypothesis and more. DS's school encourages it to be used wisely in this way. Also always run the finished assignment through a checker.

Regardless, I'd leave your young person to get on with it.

Thanks to all for your comments, lots of food for thought.

A few points -

Yes they are 20, but considerably younger maturity wise due to the asd. I also recognise that not all 20 year olds are the same regardless.

They haven’t struggled ‘a bit’
Mainstream school/college has been a MASSIVE issue. I’m genuinely terrified about them navigating Uni but I’m trying really hard not to let them see that. My reasons for asking here are probably tied up with that.

No, I don’t believe that they were only given two days notice. I do know how hard it is to get things done with PDA and try not to shame them for this but also acknowledge the rest of the world won’t necessarily take this into account.

As much as I don’t want their (frankly huge) struggles thus far to have been in vain, I appreciate that at some point their actions will have consequences and I can’t protect them from them all.

The points about how AI is used in this way have been illuminating. They did say they were only using it partially in order to complete on time. This sort of thing has never come up before. They are usually extremely diligent (They love learning, it is really their favourite thing on the planet to do) It’s the deadlines they struggle with.

If there are consequences for using AI then that really will be on them I guess. I’ve said my piece, and that will have to do.

Not really relevant but I’m not using neutral language to describe my child for any reason other than trying to be somewhat unidentifiable as they know I sometimes post here.

Thanks for all the advice, I’ll stay out of it and hope for the best.