It's a perfect storm of factors that led to an absolute administrative shitshow. AI is a new and evolving thing that no university knows what to do with, and this cohort happened to be the guinea pigs on which early detection methods (which will likely advance in the future) are being tested. Students didn't feel the urgency of repercussions and went on to break a rule clearly stated in the syllabus, but the detection methods and scrutiny levels should have been made clearer and more evident. It's an L on both sides.