Student reports receiving a zero after a disputed AI-detector result
In an August 2025 first-person post, a student said they discovered a zero for a summer-course discussion assignment after a checker labelled 85% of the text AI-generated. They denied using AI to write it, reported contacting the professor, and described anger and fear of future accusations. Neither the detector output nor the school’s account was available for verification.
- AI system
- Unidentified AI-text detector
- Occurred
- Aug 2025
- Reported
- 2 August 2025
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Made a claim about the person
- Reported harm
- Educational HarmPsychological Distress
- Whose AI use
- An institution’s AI use
- Setting
- Education
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
- 1 claim: 1 reported. 1 open question
- People reported harmed
- At least 1 person
AI system as recorded: Unidentified AI-writing detector
Reported harm
The student reports a zero grade and distress after a checker allegedly flagged their discussion post as 85% AI-generated; they dispute the accusation.
What remains unknown
- Detector brand, original assignment, detector report, instructor response, appeal outcome and location are unknown.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. The complete original post was inspected in the public Reddit archive. The grade and detector claims are attributed to the student.
1 claim: 1 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The student reports a zero grade and distress after a checker allegedly flagged their discussion post as 85% AI-generated; they dispute the accusation.
Causal attribution. The source reports the connection; independent causal verification is unavailable.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Original post paragraphs 1–2 and final paragraphs about contacting the professor and fearing future accusations.
Sources
1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- What do you do when you're falsely accused of using AI?(opens in new tab)
s1 · reddit.com · Public forum · English · Inspected · Primary
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.
The inspected account does not establish the event or affected person country.
Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: The complete original post was inspected in the public Reddit archive. The grade and detector claims are attributed to the student.
People reported harmed in this case
At least 1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
One original poster affected by an institutional detector claim. Other students are not quantified.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Student reports receiving a zero after a disputed AI-detector result. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-student-reports-zero-grade-after-ai-detector-flag
BibTeX
@misc{2025_student_reports_zero_grade_after_ai_detector_flag,
title = {Student reports receiving a zero after a disputed AI-detector result},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-student-reports-zero-grade-after-ai-detector-flag}
} Related cases
Adelphi accused Orion Newby of AI plagiarism after a detector flagged his paper; a Nassau County judge ordered the finding expunged
Orion Newby, an Adelphi University first-year student with language and auditory processing disabilities, received a zero in November 2024 on a World Civilizations paper after the professor suspected it was AI-generated and the university relied in part on AI-detection software; he was ordered to attend a plagiarism workshop and his appeal was denied, leaving him one finding from suspension or expulsion. Newby — who had written the paper with 15-20 hours of tutor support through the university's own disability program — said the detectors flagged his citations, and two other detectors scored the paper as human. After the family sued, New York State Supreme Court Judge Randy Sue Marber in Nassau County ruled on 28 January 2026 that Adelphi's finding and its denial of his appeal were 'without valid basis and devoid of reason' and ordered his record expunged. The family spent six figures on legal costs.
Pontianak, Indonesia: university suspended six students victimized by AI deepfakes; the sanctions were revoked after student protests
In May 2026, a case of alleged AI abuse surfaced at Tanjungpura University (Untan), Pontianak: a biology student identified by the initials RY allegedly used AI to turn photos of female classmates and other students into vulgar content, discovered when a classmate borrowing his phone found manipulated images in the gallery. The university's task force examined nine victims and witnesses and opened a reporting channel. The university then suspended six of the victimized students for two semesters — while the alleged perpetrator received a lighter sanction — prompting a student demonstration on 14 September 2026 demanding the victims' reinstatement and RY's expulsion. At the protest, Vice Rector Dr Achmadi announced the six sanctions were revoked and the students' academic status reactivated, with the corrected decree to be handed over on 15 September.
Tennessee minors v. xAI: three girls say a man one of them knew used an AI app to make nude images and video of them and other minors, at least 19 in all, and traded them online; they sued xAI, and later also Stability AI, over the tool
Three Tennessee girls, two still minors, sued xAI in the Northern District of California on 16 March 2026 over AI-generated nude images and a video made of them as minors. According to the complaint, on or about 6 December 2025 an anonymous Instagram user sent one of them sexual AI images of herself made from her own photos, including her homecoming and yearbook pictures, and a link to a Discord server created by a person she knew, which held images and videos of at least 18 other minor girls, including the two other plaintiffs, many from her school. Local police arrested the man in late December 2025; the other two plaintiffs learned from investigators in February 2026 that he had made nude images of them, and he is alleged to have traded the files on Telegram and Mega. The plaintiffs describe anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares, self-isolation and needing academic accommodations. Their first complaint said law enforcement linked the app he used to xAI's Grok technology; the July amended complaint says the app relied on Stability AI's tools and names Stability AI as a defendant. The case is at an early stage and no court has ruled on the allegations.
Louisiana girl reports bullying and school exclusion after AI sexual-image abuse
AP reported that AI-generated sexual images of a 13-year-old girl and other students circulated in Thibodaux in August 2025. Her father described bullying, requests for help, depression and anxiety. After the girl fought a boy she suspected of involvement, the district excluded her from regular school and she spent ten weeks in alternative school. The district said it followed its protocols and disputed the family's one-sided account. District and sheriff statements identified eight girls and two adults as image-abuse targets; AP reported charges against two boys.
If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.