25 Feb CAN AI DO YOUR HOMEWORK?

I. Artificial
Intelligence and
School Work
Generative
Artificial
Intelligence
(AI) has made
great progress over recent years. The
trickle that began in late 2022 has now
become a torrent of AI tools that offer
assistance in common creative tasks
including writing. The technology is
still new and the results are increasingly
impressive although still with significant
limitations.
Some students quickly realized that
ChatGPT can do their homework. A
January 6, 2023 article in the Yeshiva
College newspaper, The Commentator,
is titled “Students Caught Cheating
Using AI on Final; Academic Integrity
Policy Updated.” Software has already
been developed to detect whether an
essay was written by a human or artificial
intelligence. I would like to examine
whether halachah forbids using AI to do
your homework. Of course, if the school
or teacher says it is not allowed, that

means when you hand in the homework,
you are agreeing that you did not use AI
for it. But what if there is no explicit rule
about it?
When I was in school, we were not
allowed to use calculators in math tests. If
we were caught using one, we were found
guilty of cheating. Today, students are
expected to use (expensive) calculators.
Teachers have changed how they teach
to incorporate calculators so it is now a
tool for learning rather than for cheating.
I suspect that AI will eventually become
a tool for learning also. However, that
will take time. Currently, if a teacher
assigns an essay, he expects the student
to write it himself. What does halachah
say about someone who uses generative
AI to write that essay?
II. Plagiarism
When it comes to plagiarism, presenting
someone else’s work as your own,
there are three possible prohibitions.
One problem is theft because you are
violating the copyright of the original
writer — you are stealing his words and
thoughts. Halachic authorities debate

whether this is technically
forbidden or merely an issue
of following secular law
(see Rav Nachum Menashe
Weisfish’s excellent book,
Copyright in Jewish Law).
However, that does not seem
to apply to AI. Presumably,
the artificial intelligence does
not own the copyright on its
writings, although maybe that
will change in the future.
Another problem with
plagiarism is geneivas da’as,
misrepresentation. Rav Moshe
Feinstein (Iggeros Moshe, Choshen
Mishpat vol. 2 no. 30) writes that students
in school are forbidden to copy off each
other because of geneivas da’as. You are
claiming to have knowledge which you
do not actually have. Additionally, if the
grade you receive impacts your ultimate
GPA when you graduate, and you are
hired based in part on your GPA or
degree, Rav Feinstein says that you are
stealing from your employer with every
paycheck you receive based on false
grades. That constitutes actual, ongoing
geneivah (theft) in addition to the
initial geneivas da’as. The same should
apply to submitting the work of AI as
your own. You are misrepresenting
yourself as having skills, knowledge
and achievements that you do not have.
That act constitutes geneivas da’as and
could lead to outright geneivah in the
future.
Rav Aaron Levine (Moral Issues of
the Marketplace in Jewish Law, pp. 31-
35) argues that failing to properly cite
sources is not just misrepresentation
but also a lack of gratitude. If you see
a book quote a text and — relying on
this citation in the secondary source —
quote the underlying text, you have to
quote the book in which you see the
quote because that book is your teacher.
This falls under the Mishnah (Avos 6:6),
“Whoever repeats a thing in the name of
the one who said it brings redemption to
the world.” However, Rav Levine says,
even if you look up the original source,
you still have to quote the secondary
book in which you learned about the
source out of gratitude. The book, or
rather the book’s author, provided you
with valuable information and deserves
a public thanks for the help.
III. Artificial Intelligence and
Cheating
The requirement for gratitude applies

in the case of plagiarism. When you fail
to acknowledge the original author, you
are violating the requirement to show
gratitude and more generally showing
disrespect to the author. Does this apply
to artificial intelligence? Rambam
and Ramban disagree regarding the
requirement to send away a mother bird
before taking her chicks. According to
Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 3:48) it is
out of mercy for the mother. According
to Ramban (Commentary, Deut. 22:6)
there is no requirement to show mercy
to an animal. Rather, the obligation is to
develop your character trait of mercy.
You must become a merciful person.
Following this logic,according to
Rambam, there is no obligation to show
gratitude to an AI. According to Ramban,
maybe there is an obligation in order
to develop yourself into a gratuitous,
grateful person.
I suspect that there is no obligation
of gratitude to an AI. We do not thank
the tools and technology we use to
accomplish things. I do not see authors
thanking their computers and word
processing software, not to mention
the printing and binding machines
that create physical books. AI is just
another technological tool that does not
expect gratitude and is not offended by
ingratitude.
In general, academic crimes of
plagiarism and cheating depend on
expectations. When a student is expected
to do math without a calculator, he is
considered cheating if he uses one. To
the best of my understanding, currently,
students are expected to write essays and
do other work without the assistance of
artificial intelligence. When that changes
(I say when and not if), usage of that
technology will not constitute cheating.
Until that time, using AI contrary to
expectations constitutes geneivas da’as
and possible outright geneivah.