The University of Minnesota expelled a third-year Ph.D. student in January, 2025 after he was accused of using generative artificial intelligence (AI) on an exam. Haishan Yang’s lawsuit against the University claims he was wrongfully accused of breaking the University’s scholastic dishonesty rules by using AI on his preliminary exam last August. Yang also filed a complaint with Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights in February, 2025 for discriminatory treatment based on his national origin.
Yang said he used AI like ChatGPT to check his grammar as a non-native English speaker but decided against using it for his preliminary exam.
University documents Yang shared with the Minnesota Daily show four faculty graders were doubtful that one section of Yang’s exam was written without assistance from AI. The professors pointed out an acronym not used in preparatory reading for the exam and other details that were included in one of Yang’s essay responses as signs of ChatGPT use. The faculty graders input exam prompts to ChatGPT, compared its answers to Yang’s and shared the results at the hearing.
