Faculty Honor Committee and Student Honor Committee members will soon join the AI Working Group, which will conduct empirical research into artificial intelligence. This group will work for several weeks to draft a background paper that will provide a list of recommendations for setting the AI policy ahead of the Honor Code Charter Review next semester.
The AI Working Group is led by College third-year Lucas Daley, who is on the Student Advisory Board and the Student Honor Committee. Daley emphasized that extensive research on AI was necessary for Oberlin’s AI policy to adjust to the rapid development of AI.
“At the time of the last Charter Review, AI had little to no documented history of classroom use, whether authorized or unauthorized,” Daley said. “As we know, technology develops exponentially and we now have a host of data and analysis to draw on that can inform us a lot better. So the working group aims to synthesize the available information into a digestible format.”
Daley explained that the AI Working Group sought to empirically research artificial intelligence by studying the programs at other academic institutions, but also looking at AI policy within government agencies and the private sector.
“Next fall they’ll have a completed background paper that goes over … analysis of AI cases at Oberlin, current and future applications of AI in class assignments, academic research, professional settings, and then other policies on AI across institutions from other colleges and universities, academic journals, in the private sector, [and] in government,” Daley said.
Associate Dean of Students Thom Julian reiterated the need to review AI policy across academic institutions.
“The goal is for us to create a research benchmark to learn what other schools may be doing well, what things that they may be struggling with, so we can kind of go into the next honor code review cycle with the most fully informed decision[s],” Julian said.
Daley clarified that the last revision to the Honor Code’s AI policy was implemented in May 2023 in response to the growing prevalence of ChatGPT. The Oberlin Charter Review is updated every three years.
The May 2023 Oberlin Honor Code provision on what counts as cheating with AI states: “utilizing artificial intelligence or other related programs to create or assist with assignments or on the behalf of a student unless otherwise specified by the faculty member and/or the Office of Disability & Access.”
When asked how the research of the AI Working Group would inform the Honor Code, Daley explained that the working group would provide the Student Honor Committee with a paper summarizing their findings. The main output of this project will be a background paper that will be presented to the Student Honor Committee.
Daley emphasized that the recommendations in the background paper would go through an extensive process before it could be implemented. The charter review process is undertaken by the Student Honor Committee, Faculty Honor Committee, and must also be approved by General Faculty.
Julian similarly emphasized that further AI research was necessary due to the constantly accelerating development of AI.
“AI identification software is not as fully developed as even plagiarism detection software,” Julian said. “And that’s something that we continue to navigate as well.”
Daley emphasized the importance of utilizing updated language on AI that can be clearly understood by administrators, professors, and students.
“The honor code is not written only by computer science majors, so it’s important to summarize this information so that people can use it to make informed decisions so that we can have the most fair and equitable honor code possible,” Daley said.
