Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Students Are Calling Them Out

Not too long ago, schools were freaking out about students using ChatGPT to cheat. Now? It’s the professors who are using it—and students aren’t happy.

Ella Stapleton, a senior at Northeastern University, was reviewing her class notes when she noticed something strange: a prompt to ChatGPT right in the middle of the material. Her professor had used AI to write parts of a lecture. The irony? The syllabus clearly said students couldn’t use AI or chatbots.

Ella was shocked. She started looking through other course materials and found even more signs of AI—bad grammar, weird-looking images, and just messy slides. She ended up filing a complaint and even asked for a refund of over $8,000 for that class.

She’s not the only one. More and more students are calling out professors online, saying their assignments, feedback, and even grades seem like they were written by a bot. And considering the high cost of tuition, they feel like they’re being shortchanged. They didn’t pay thousands just to have an algorithm do the teaching.

On the flip side, some professors say they use AI tools to save time and deal with heavy workloads. They see it as a way to make things more efficient. In fact, the number of college instructors using AI tools like ChatGPT has nearly doubled over the past year.

But students aren’t buying it. One student, Marie, found out her professor used ChatGPT to grade her essay—and even asked it to write “nice feedback.” She felt like her work wasn’t even read, and ended up transferring to another school.

The truth is, AI is here to stay. But the real question is how schools and teachers choose to use it. Students don’t expect perfection—they just want honesty, effort, and a human touch.