Parents sue high school after son was punished for using AI on history paper

The parents of a Massachusetts high school senior are suing their son’s school for the punishments he received after he used artificial intelligence to help him write a history paper .

Jennifer and Dale Harris filed the lawsuit against Hingham Public Schools in Massachusetts district court. They claim their son didn’t break any rules and his punishments, which included keeping him out of the National Honor Society, may impact his college options, NBC News reported .

“He got a perfect score on the ACT, and he’s looking to go to Standford or MIT or some of the top schools, and he’s missed the opportunity already for rolling admissions,” Jennifer Harris said.

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Their son got in trouble after his AP U.S. History teacher discovered he and another student used AI for a project on basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar late last year, according to the complaint. He received zeroes and an overall D on the assignment, pulling him down to a C for the semester and lowering his overall GPA.

Peter Farrell, the family’s lawyer, said the teen wasn’t using AI to write his paper for him but was using it to find sources and develop ideas. “It’s underregulated, especially in a school setting,” Farrell told NBC News. “It is here to stay, it is ubiquitous, and it’s going to be a part of everyone’s everyday life in the very near future.”

“AI is not plagiarism,” Farrell added. “AI is an output from a machine.”

The teen's parents say the school handbook didn’t mention the use of AI until after this incident. They said they want the school system to make AI policies clear.

"In my opinion they violated his civil rights, they treated him and punished him more severely than other students," Dale Harris said.