This university falsely accuses 6,000 students of using AI to cheat, admits tool was deeply flawed

AI

A major Australian university has come under fire for falsely accusing thousands of students of using artificial intelligence to cheat, all because of a faulty AI detection system.

The Australian Catholic University (ACU) registered almost 6,000 cases of alleged academic misconduct across its nine campuses in 2024 — and about 90 per cent of them were linked to supposed AI use. According to a report by ABC News, the accusations were based entirely on Turnitin’s AI detector, a tool now known for its high error rate.

Students say they were notified of the charges at the end of the semester, leaving them with little time to defend themselves. Worse, the university reportedly placed the burden of proof on students, forcing them to prove their innocence against a machine-generated report.

Madeleine, a 22-year-old nursing student, recalled how the accusations turned her life upside down. “It was already a stressful enough time of my life. And on top of that, I was getting emails from the academic misconduct board saying I needed to explain why this might have happened,” she told ABC News. It took ACU six months to clear her name, but the damage was already done. “I didn’t know what to do. Do I go back and study? Do I just give up and do something that’s not nursing?” she said.

The university relied on Turnitin, a popular plagiarism detection software that added an AI detector in 2023. Even though Turnitin’s website warns its AI reports “may not always be accurate,” ACU staff reportedly treated them as solid evidence. Internal documents now show that the university knew about flaws in the system for over a year before finally abandoning it in March 2024.

The scandal has triggered massive backlash online, with many calling the accusations “disgraceful” and “ironic.” One social media user wrote, “Imagine telling students they’ll get expelled for using AI when lecturers are using AI to grade their papers.”

Critics say the incident exposes the dark side of AI policing in education — where students are being punished not by proof, but by algorithms.