Start 2025 with an AI Detector Plan: If you identify as neurodivergent, your academic future could depend on it
Happy New Year, Detectors!
Can you believe how fast time is flying? We hope those of you who celebrated holidays in December had the merriest of times and received everything on your wishlist.
Let’s jump right into 2025. The latest targets for AI accusations colleges and universities are neurodivergent students. We blogged about this in 2024 when we covered the case of a neurodivergent student whose professor accused her of using AI, no matter how much evidence she presented in her defense.
At that time, we warned that any student, could do one thing to protect themselves: invest in an affordable AI Detector Pro plan, prescan their assignments, and paraphrase their work using AI Eraser before submission. We added additional tips about how to document here.
Neurodivergent Professor admits her peers randomly accuse students without proof, so protect yourself
Interestingly, the phenomenon of accusing neurodivergent students now seems to have spread to professors as well. Someone emailed Professor Rua Mae Williams, a professor at Purdue, who identifies as being neurodivergent, and accused them of being an AI Chatbot. Unlike many students, Professor Williams has a measure of authority and enough power to reject the accusation categorically. Additionally, they spoke up about unfair accusations against students from their peers, noting that “students at Purdue and other places are being wrongfully accused of using ChatGPT in their essays from professors that I know for a fact don’t actually have the resources to check.”
Study finds that Large Language Models that power AI have an Inherent Bias against the neurodiverse
The phenomenon of accusing the neurodivergent sparked a new study titled “Prevalence of Bias against neurodivergence-related terms in Artificial Intelligence Language Models.” The researchers discovered that “an overall high level of bias towards or negative associations with terms related to autism and neurodiversity.” The researchers concluded that we should “examine potential bias in other AI-based processes.” For instance, they recommended reviewing “AI-based resume scanners,” among the first softwares mentioned, and “workplace personality tests.” We have been noting that job seekers should perform AI Detection scans and revisions on their resumes since 2023.
ESL (English as a Second Language) Students should Also be Wary
One of the most significant moves AI Detector Pro made last year was to extend our language capabilities to Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, German, and French. We now detect and humanize content in all of those languages. In addition to the neurodiverse, non-native English speakers are frequently flagged on AI because “their writing style in some cases can look similar to what AI might generate.” Dear Detectors, a subscription to AI Detector Pro is necessary when applying for or pursuing your education in the US.
Don’t put your fate in your (aging) professor’s hands
Professors have a tough job these days. They didn’t grow up with many of the technologies we use today. Tenured faculty members are usually over 55 or older. That means they didn’t grow up with social media or the internet, let alone AI! Trust us, it was a REALLY BIG DEAL when Google came out. Professors have been doing things the same way for a long time and haven’t adapted well to the age of AI. It’s 2025, but in September 2024 , 31 % of students said they didn’t know whether or not they were allowed to use AI, how or when.
In the same article, we learned that “81 percent of college presidents admitted they had “yet to publish a policy governing the use of AI including in teaching and research.” That’s scary.
Will you avoid paying $13.99/month (your coupon never expires) when your older professor probably doesn’t like the internet, doesn’t like AI or has a single tool at their disposal to accuse you of a policy that doesn’t exist yet? Perhaps that’s why, as Professor Williams said, they’re open to making up things without proof.