College Graduate's Diploma Was Threatened To Be Taken Away After She Wore A Shirt To Graduation Thanking ChatGPT
She meant it to be one last joke before leaving college, but her school administration didn't take it that way.
Drazen Zigic | Shutterstock A college student almost missed out on receiving her diploma after she showed up at the ceremony in a shirt that the school administration did not find funny in the slightest.
In a TikTok video, a young woman named Delilah Meier wanted to play one last practical joke before leaving college, but it ended up backfiring a bit once the school admin realized what her shirt was implying.
Her diploma was threatened to be taken away after she showed up to the ceremony wearing a shirt thanking ChatGPT.
Meier's plan started a few days before her college graduation when she posted a TikTok video asking her followers if the shirt that she wanted to wear to the ceremony was a "stupid idea" or an extremely funny joke.
"So, I'm graduating from college. So I made this shirt that says I [heart] ChatGPT," Meier said, showing the plain white shirt with the words written across it. That wasn't the only thing, though. On the back of the shirt, toward the bottom, Meier printed, "I wouldn't be here without you," implying that the only reason she was able to earn her degree was that she used the AI tool for most of her assignments, if not all of them.
Meier explained that she would throw the shirt over her dress as she was walking across the stage to get her diploma and unzip her graduation gown so that everyone could see. In Meier's mind, it would maybe elicit a few chuckles and laughter.
However, Meier said she was warned by her friends that it might not be the best idea.
They told her that the dean of the college, who would be handing Meier her diploma, would probably "snatch" it away at the sight of her shirt. "I think it's funny," Meier defended. "But I also do a lot of stupid stuff because I think it's funny."
At Meier's graduation, she was immediately pulled aside once administrators saw her shirt.
In a follow-up video, Meier insisted that despite others telling her that she shouldn't wear the shirt, she wore it anyway. Posing in front of the camera with the shirt on, Meier unzipped her graduation gown to show that she had worn the ChatGPT shirt.
"Congrats on graduation! What helped with the school year?" Meier's friends can be heard sarcastically asking her off-camera. In response, Meier, jokingly looking confused, showed her I [heart] ChatGPT shirt, turning around to also show off the back of it.
However, as she was recording, another voice could be heard in the background saying, "Excuse me," to Meier.
The next clip shows Meier sitting in a room, most likely conversing with the college's administration. They can be heard telling Meier that due to the insinuation of the message on her shirt, they would have to investigate her achievements. If the administration found any evidence of AI writing Meier's assignments, they would have no choice but to revoke her diploma.
Despite the emergence of AI tools, the percentage of students cheating in school has remained the same.
While Meier's shirt was a joke, and she didn't actually use ChatGPT to get her diploma, it's understandable that her school would take precautions to make sure.
Of the more than 200 million writing assignments reviewed by Turnitin’s AI detection tool over the past year, some AI use was detected in about 1 out of 10 assignments, while only 3 out of every 100 assignments were generated mostly by AI, according to Ed Week.
On the other hand, in a survey from Stanford University, researchers polled students in 40 different high schools and found that the percentage of students who admitted to cheating has remained flat since the creation of ChatGPT and other readily available generative AI tools. For years, before the release of ChatGPT, between 60 and 70% of students admitted to cheating, and that remained the same in the 2023 surveys.
It's no secret that AI has continued to be a source of issues, especially in higher education. Luckily, Meier admitted that she was able to keep her diploma after no evidence was found, but of course, the institution had to make sure that nothing nefarious was going on to allow Meier to receive her diploma in the first place.
Hopefully, any upcoming graduates won't make the same mistake that Meier did!
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.