Chennai college asks students to declare AI use in assignments

Chennai: To encourage responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI), Stella Maris College has asked its students to declare the use of AI in class assignments and projects. Students are now required to give a handwritten honour code pledge saying they have not received unauthorized or undeclared assistance in the work. This has come into effect from the 2025-26 academic year.The college also introduced an AI framework for learning and assessment, which allows using AI for tasks such as polishing the language and correcting grammar, and bans AI-generated content due to concerns over errors and bias. It prescribed four types of AI usage for assignments—open usage, usage with disclosure, usage with compliance and prohibited usage. "We have noticed that many students simply cut and paste the unsupervised assignments using AI tools. They also do not fact-check or verify the generated information. We are trying to integrate AI into the learning by allowing students to use it with disclosure," said Faustina Joan, a faculty member from the college's computer science department. "It's just an assistive tool. This will eliminate any guilt they might be feeling," she added."We tend to feel that we have ownership of the content now as the college encourages us to use AI, but in an ethical way," said Dharanya, a third-year BA economics student.Another student, Khashifaa, a final-year BCA student, said students have become conscious of AI use after the introduction of the pledge. "The faculty members do not allow us to generate codes using AI. So, the usage has reduced by half," she added."The vision of ‘AI strategic framework' for students is to responsibly integrate AI tools into the learning and assessment processes while maintaining academic integrity and fairness," said Rebecca Devaprasad, coordinator of the internal quality assessment cell (IQAC) at the college."Students may have to work with AI tools in their workplace after graduation. This will give them confidence and they can use AI transparently and responsibly," she added.Other institutions such as IIT Madras and Anna University too are in the process of developing an AI policy.