{"course":{"slug":"ai-for-students","title":"AI for Students","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-students","level":"beginner","track":"work"},"lesson":{"slug":"if-you-are-accused","title":"If you are accused","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-students/if-you-are-accused","position":61,"of":73,"minutes":8,"answer":"An allegation is not a finding: do not confess to what you did not do, get your students' union adviser involved before responding at length.","keyIdea":"An allegation is not a finding: do not confess to what you did not do, get your students' union adviser involved before responding at length, and remember that being able to discuss your own work in detail is the strongest evidence there is."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## First, do not panic and do not confess\n\nAn allegation is not a finding. Procedures exist, they involve a hearing or an interview, and most institutions have an appeal route afterwards. People are cleared regularly.\n\nThe single most damaging thing students do is admit to something they did not do, because the process is frightening and admitting seems like the fastest way out. It is not. A finding of misconduct on your record is a serious and lasting thing, and it is much harder to undo than to contest in the first place.\n\nEqually: do not lie. If you did something, saying so early is treated far more leniently everywhere, and being caught in a false account is worse than the original matter.\n\n## The steps, in order\n\n**1. Read the allegation carefully.** What exactly is alleged? Generated text? A fabricated citation? Undisclosed use? These are different charges with different evidence and different responses. Students often defend against the wrong one.\n\n**2. Find out what the evidence is.** You are normally entitled to know. If it is a detector score, ask for the score, the tool, and the institution's policy on how such scores may be used.\n\n**3. Gather your record.** Version history, notes, outline drafts, reading, commits, browser history, library loans. Export it now, before anything is archived or an account is closed.\n\n**4. Get support before you respond.** Your students' union almost certainly has advisers who do this every week, free, and they know your institution's procedure and its people. This is what they are for and they are chronically underused. Many institutions also have an independent student advice service.\n\n**5. Do not respond alone at length in writing** before you have taken advice. A short acknowledgement that you have received the allegation and are preparing a response is fine.\n\n**6. Prepare to discuss the work.** The strongest evidence you have is being able to talk about your own essay: why you argued what you did, why the third paragraph comes third, what the sources say, what you rejected and why. Somebody who did the work can do this and somebody who did not cannot. Re-read your own work before any meeting.\n\n## Responding to a detector score\n\nCalmly, factually, and without a lecture. The points that matter:\n\n- Detector output is probabilistic and vendors state it is indicative rather than conclusive.\n- Documented false positive rates are materially higher for second-language writers and for formulaic prose. If that applies to you, say so.\n- Ask what corroborating evidence exists beyond the score, and what the institution's policy says about scores as sole evidence.\n- Offer your process record, and offer to discuss the work.\n\nThe tone matters. You are not arguing that detection is impossible; you are pointing out that this particular instrument cannot support this particular conclusion on its own, and offering better evidence.\n\n## If you did use it in a way you should not have\n\nSay so, early, plainly, without elaborate explanation. Every institution's procedure treats early admission more leniently, and the alternative (a contested case that goes against you) carries a worse outcome and a worse record.\n\nAnd if you realise it *before* submission or before anyone notices, tell the module leader yourself. Self-disclosure before detection is treated differently from being caught, at every institution.\n\n## The unfair situation, named\n\nSome students will be accused wrongly. The detector arithmetic guarantees it. If it happens to you it will be one of the more distressing experiences of your degree, and knowing that the instrument is unreliable does not make the meeting less frightening.\n\nThree things reduce the damage, and all three have to be in place beforehand: a process record, a habit of disclosure, and the ability to discuss your own work in detail. That is why this module comes before the exam module rather than after it, and why the record habit is worth building in your first week rather than the week you need it.\n\n## Afterwards\n\nIf you are cleared, ask for confirmation in writing and check that nothing remains on your record. If a finding is made and you believe it wrong, use the appeal route; there is a deadline and it is usually short. Either way, keep every document from the process."},"check":{"question":"Why is the ability to discuss your own essay in detail stronger evidence than any document you can produce?","options":[{"text":"Because documents can be fabricated whereas a conversation cannot be prepared for in advance.","correct":false,"tempting":"Overstates: a conversation can be prepared for to a degree, and the module recommends re-reading your work before the meeting."},{"text":"Because panels weight oral evidence above documentary evidence in academic misconduct procedures.","correct":false,"tempting":"Invents a general evidential hierarchy; procedures vary and most consider all evidence together."},{"text":"Because someone who made the argument can explain why each choice was made, and someone who did not cannot.","correct":true},{"text":"Because it demonstrates subject knowledge, and a student who knows the subject would have had no reason to use AI in the first place.","correct":false,"tempting":"Rests on a false inference about motive; capable students use these tools too, and the question is authorship of this piece."}]},"prev":{"slug":"the-process-record","title":"The process record","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-students/the-process-record"},"next":{"slug":"where-the-line-really-is","title":"Where the line really is","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-students/where-the-line-really-is"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'If you are accused', in AI for Students. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-students/if-you-are-accused (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"If you are accused","courseTitle":"AI for Students","module":{"index":7,"slug":"rules-honesty-record","title":"Rules, honesty and the record"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"An allegation is not a finding: do not confess to what you did not do, get your students’ union adviser involved before responding at length, and remember that being able to discuss your own work in detail is the strongest evidence there is.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"first-do-not-panic-and-do-not-confess","runs":[{"text":"First, do not panic and do not confess"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"An allegation is not a finding. Procedures exist, they involve a hearing or an interview, and most institutions have an appeal route afterwards. People are cleared regularly."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The single most damaging thing students do is admit to something they did not do, because the process is frightening and admitting seems like the fastest way out. It is not. A finding of misconduct on your record is a serious and lasting thing, and it is much harder to undo than to contest in the first place."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Equally: do not lie. If you did something, saying so early is treated far more leniently everywhere, and being caught in a false account is worse than the original matter."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-steps-in-order","runs":[{"text":"The steps, in order"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"1. Read the allegation carefully.","b":true},{"text":" What exactly is alleged? Generated text? A fabricated citation? Undisclosed use? These are different charges with different evidence and different responses. Students often defend against the wrong one."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"2. 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