While people quickly integrated word-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) bots into their daily work and philosophical discussions about work, similar technology is raising major ethical and technical questions for academics and students involved in the art world.

Faculty in the McKelvey School of Engineering are grappling with how to best prepare computer science students for careers that will be fundamentally changed by generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

This Fall Semester is slated to be one of trial and error for how generative AI, technology that mimics human-generated content, fits into education. Washington University has not implemented universal policies surrounding the use of AI technology, leaving it up to individual professors to decide how much to engage with it or limit its use. 

This is the first full academic year for professors and students to contend with the academic integrity implications of generative AI.

Addressing this problem requires us to attack the roots of academic integrity violations, namely archaic academic standards and student mental health.

Little, round and packed with amphetamines: prescription stimulants. They’re a source of relief for overworked students across the nation and at Washington University. But a recent revision to the honor code at Wesleyan University has put the spotlight on not just the legality of these drugs, but also the morality of using them in an academic setting.

At Monday’s Controversy n’ Coffee forum, “Am I cheating? A special forum on academic integrity,” Dean Dirk Killen said that every year the College of Arts & Sciences hears about 20-25 honor code violations.