GARDEN CITY, Long Island (WABC) — A college student on Long Island says he was wrongly accused of using artificial intelligence to write an essay, and now he’s suing his university.
Adelphi University says an AI detection software flagged 19-year-old Orion Newby’s work and claims the paper was “too advanced” for the first-year student.
Newby says he handed in a history paper about Christianity. That paper earned him a zero, because his professor said Newby’s voice wasn’t coming through the work and he must have used AI to polish it. Newby says the work was his own.
“I told him I worked 15 to 20 hours with tutors,” Newby said.
“He uses tutors to help him grammatically,” said Newby’s mother, Candy Newby.
The 19-year-old student told his professor he never used AI.
Newby has learning differences… issues specifically with language processing. At Adelphi, he’s in a special program with extra support.
The accusations from Adelphi have rocked him.
“A few nights I had, it was sleepless for me,” Newby said. “I’m just looking to get an education and not have them bother me
Newby and his family are suing the school. They say Adelphi ran Newby’s paper through an AI detection program that turned up similarities between his work and material on the web, but those similarities were his list of citations.
“Which is ridiculous,” said Orion’s father, Hunter Newby. “And he was never given the chance to appeal. He never had his day. He was deemed guilty, branded a plagiarist and that was it.”
Newby says Adelphi told him he had to take an anti-plagiarism course, and until he did, he couldn’t enroll in other classes. That’s when his family sued.
“We’re asking the adjudication be dismissed. We’re asking for compensation. We’ll leave that to a judge to decide,” said attorney, Mark Lesko.
They want the slate wiped clean for Orion Newby. There’s a hearing in early November.
“I don’t want it on my record. I do not. That’s the thing,” Orion Newby said.
Eyewitness News asked Adelphi for a response to the lawsuit.
A spokesman there said they wouldn’t comment as a matter of policy. They don’t discuss ongoing litigation.
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