A student at Northeastern University in the United States has accused a professor of using AI tools such as ChatGPT to prepare lecture materials and has demanded a refund of over $8,000 in tuition fees.
Ella Stapleton, a business administration student, filed a formal complaint claiming that her professor, Rick Arrowood, used ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and presentation generator Gamma AI in class preparations. This, she argued, contradicted the university’s stance prohibiting students from using AI tools, reports The New York Times.
She raised concerns after noticing multiple spelling errors and references to ChatGPT in lecture notes, along with AI-generated images containing distorted human figures.
“He’s telling us not to use it, and then he’s using it himself,” she told The New York Times.
Stapleton filed a formal complaint with Northeastern’s business school, citing the professor’s undisclosed use of A.I. and other concerns about his teaching style. She also requested a tuition refund for the course — more than $8,000, amounting to a quarter of her total semester costs.
Despite her complaint, the university rejected Stapleton’s refund request after multiple hearings.