AI incident #1632 ·
Yale Student Suspended and Given F After GPTZero Allegedly Misclassified Exam as AI-Generated
What happened
In 2024, Yale University reportedly used GPTZero as one factor in investigating whether Executive MBA student Thierry Rignol used AI on an exam. Rignol reportedly denied cheating and alleged the detector falsely classified his writing as AI-generated. Yale reportedly later suspended him for a year and gave him an F, while citing additional evidence and his conduct during the investigation. Rignol has challenged the process in federal court.
Editor's notes (AI Incident Database)
The incident ID date is 06/11/2024, marking when one of the course professors reportedly emailed the dean about the suspicions. For more information on the case, please consult the docket here: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69607031/rignol-v-yale-university/. The incident ID was created 08/13/2026.
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News reports (1)
Coverage catalogued by the AI Incident Database. Titles link to the original publisher; the text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Yale University Universities Professors Institutions of higher education Educational communities
- Alleged developer
- GPTZero AI text detection system developers
- Alleged harmed party
- University students Thierry Rignol Students Non-native English speakers Educational communities
AI systems implicated
GPTZeroAI text detection systemsAI-enabled decision support systemsAI detector technologyAI content detection models
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
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- Causal entity
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Related incidents on the AI Incident Database
Linked by AIID editors or by its text-similarity model.