University of Minnesota sued for AI expulsion by student who claims it was part of a conspiracist

A hot-button: This is not the first time that a school has been sued for punishing a student who was accused of using AI. The person in this case was expelled last year from the University of Minnesota over the accusations. He says they are untrue, and that his professors have concocted a conspiracy. Haishan Yang, who was expelled from the University of Minnesota last year, was pursuing his second PhD. It is alleged that he wrote his essays using artificial intelligence tools.

Yang, 33, took a remote exam while traveling to Morocco in the summer of 2024.

The doctoral students had to pass the exam in order to begin their dissertation. They were required to write three essays over eight hours. He was allowed to use books, reports, notes, but not AI tools.

The four faculty graders who graded Yang’s exam were concerned that the exam was not written by him. They highlighted answers they felt were irrelevant or not covered in class. They also pointed out the use of acronyms that are not common in the field, but appear frequently in ChatGPT’s answers.

They found that the AI had a similar format, language, structure and content. Professor Peter Huckfeldt wrote

“I was struck by the similarities between the two that seemed extremely unlikely to be coincidental,” in a letter addressed to the hearing committee.

Yang claims this is because OpenAI’s software was using the same material as he did. He also claims that the professors edited ChatGPT responses so they looked more like his answers.

Panel also criticized Yang’s testimony for having “inconsistencies” and not many citations.

Yang says that the methods used to detect AI usage are unreliable, and biased against people who do not speak English as their first language. MPR News (19459028) reports that the student grew up in Southern Min, which is a Chinese dialect. Yang’s academic adviser, Bryan Dowd

called him “the best-read student” the most interesting person he had ever met. Dowd said.

Yang claims that the animosity stems back to his time as a researcher assistant, when the university cut off his financial support for what they claimed was poor performance and discrediting behavior. He also claims the graduate director told to quit. Yang appealed and won. The school apologized for the mistake and agreed to reinstate his funding if Yang didn’t file a lawsuit.

The Professors claim that Yang had used AI before to complete his work. A year before the test, he had submitted a homework assignment which included the text. “re write it (sic), make it more casual, like a foreign student write but no ai.” According to him, he used AI to check his English and not to generate the answers. He received a warning, but no punishment.

Yang’s appeal was denied by the university. He has filed state and federal lawsuits since then against his professor and University of Minnesota. In the federal lawsuit, he is seeking damages of $575,000. In the defamation suit, he is seeking $760,000. Yang wants his expulsion reversed, as well as a public apology. The federal lawsuit also includes a demand for $200,000 by the university”to deter future procedural violations and uphold fairness in disciplinary proceedings.”

Yang claimed he used ChatGPT when drafting the lawsuit filings.

In October, the parents a student who had been punished for using a bot to complete an assignment, sued the school claiming that it hurt their son’s college chances.