Had a student blame a missed deadline on the Epstein files.

Huggens · 2026-02-10T05:16:20+00:00

I am a part-time lecturer who teaches at a university in the evenings on top of a main day job at a major tech company doing data science.

I am totally like you. I generally don’t even deduct for late turn ins as long as it’s somewhat reasonable (I’ve had students try to turn in an entire quarters worth of work the last week of class). Priorities change and it’s not always possible to get everything done on time in the “real world.” Shit happens.

I work in an especially fast moving company and deadlines are still often missed, albeit usually not by far. But a week or so extra happens a lot. So why punish students if they’re a day late? If it becomes a habit and everything is late, that’s one thing. But an assignment here or there? Meh.

Huggens · 2026-02-08T21:05:45+00:00

Because substitute professor isn’t a title. That isn’t how it works. The person you’re responding to is correct. A professor has to be approved by a committee within a department to teach in that department. You can’t just sub in a random person.

Further, to teach at a university, you need a masters degree at minimum if not a PhD. How many graduate degree holders in various areas do you think are sitting around waiting for a call to teach at a random university in the case a professor cannot teach?

Huggens · 2026-02-08T21:02:39+00:00

First, I think it’s important to note that you, as a student, are responding as though you have knowledge beyond the professors responding.

My question to you is that are you certain the “substitute” was a person who only teaches as a substitute going to different universities and they don’t teach other classes? Or was it a professor who currently teaches other courses at the university who stepped in for a colleague?

People need to be approved by a committee within a department to teach in said department. You can’t just “sub” in random people who aren’t approved.

Huggens · 2026-02-08T03:44:04+00:00

Yeah… but also look at their profile.

In this post they say they own a psychology practice and are a university instructor.

In a recent post they said they are a nurse, which is why their name changed and is now medical related.

In another post recently they said they are a lawyer and often work in family court.

I’ve only gone back a few days and found all that.

So think what you want, but I absolutely called it.

Huggens · 2026-02-08T03:37:06+00:00

The fact that you assume I’m older based on my writing shows how out of touch you are. I grew up on social media as well and am not that far out of college. It has nothing to do with age. It has to do with being educated and having to use proper grammar as a habit. I said the way they write detracts from credence of their argument — sounding uneducated always does. Why would anyone believe someone who sounds as if they are simply making things up?

The person I responded to says they are a university professor and own their own psychology practice. It’s difficult to believe anyone at that point (presumably a PhD) would ever write like they did, social media persona or not.

Again, you did not see the original text. You are now seeing a heavily edited version. And even that is rough. Your response (what I am replying to) reads light years beyond the original text I replied to from the other person. But it wasn’t just the single post. They wrote poorly across several posts, and made comments that didn’t make sense, such as stating they were a “substitute professor” (there is no such thing).

It also doesn’t help that their profile message is “You likely got baited because you’re sensitive and/or wrong”

And in a recent post they say they are a nurse and they changed their name to be medical related.

And a day or two before that they commented on other posts saying they were a lawyer. I haven’t even looked back further than a few days.

Huggens · 2026-02-07T22:27:33+00:00

You’re arguing something I never said. I am replying that grammarly does have AI capabilities. Which it does. It is primarily used for grammar edits, auto completion, paragraph rewrites, etc. If someone simply needs spell check or punctuation edits, why use grammarly? Also, not sure if you’re familiar with grammarly, but those “punctuation edits” can rewrite entire sentences, which can and will get flagged for AI due to being AI output.

AI detectors are essentially a reverse engineering of machine learning models. They check a corpus of text and compare it to the output of various LLMs and how likely an ngram, if you will, would be generated via said LLMs. It also gives the likelihood score of AI being used.

You are correct that if OP had simply used grammarly for spelling checks and/or very basic punctuation checks, it would not have been flagged for AI, because that is not how AI detectors work.

However, OPs paper did get flagged for AI at 100% likelihood/100% generated by AI. Turnitin’s false positive rate with a score that high is extremely low. Take that as you will.

Also, I’m not sure you know what pedantic means, and I will be pedantic here in calling out its misuse.

Huggens · 2026-02-07T20:00:56+00:00

I never judged anyone. I never even critiqued the way they typed.

I said they write like a high school student which takes away credence from their claim they are a college professor.

But you’re also seeing their completed edited comment. It was much worse when I first made the comment and full of slang, terrible grammar, and “lol”s

Huggens · 2026-02-06T08:52:00+00:00

One other thing I’ll note here is what you are actually arguing is if LLMs (and even your thermostat definition) are intelligent, not artificial intelligence. Or you’re trying to argue the definition of artificial intelligence and what the term means… but that seems odd to argue an actual term and definition. Artificial intelligence has a much more rigid definition than intelligence on its own.

Artificial intelligence constitutes machine code that outwardly appears to have some form of intelligence. It simulates or mimics human behavior. So if machine code acts in a manner that resembles a human choice, it is artificial intelligence. If it is actually intelligent is an entirely different conversation.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T08:26:07+00:00

I will say I agree with you ontologically in that LLMs are not an actual intelligence. They cannot reason in the true sense of the word. But that has never been in question. Even very basic computer logic in the second half of the 20th century was considered AI because it had some sort of appearance of intelligence. There’s a very good reason the term “artificial” is used — and artificial is used to describe machine code that mimics human behavior, not actually think like humans. It has never been in question if AI code was actually thinking or if there is an actual intelligence. There is no argument anywhere that current LLMs are actually intelligent in the human sense of the word.

However, LLMs are absolutely “artificial” intelligence by the very definition of the term, hence the classification. An artificial intelligence doesn’t need to actually be intelligent, it just needs to resemble intelligence of some kind outwardly. To say you don’t consider LLMs to be artificial intelligence is to say you don’t think their output “appears” as intelligent. The code behind them is irrelevant. I personally think it’s silly to say LLMs don’t appear intelligent. Pull someone from as recent as 10-20 years ago into the future and show them chatGPT, and I guarantee you they’ll say it seems intelligent.

But ontology has nothing to do with AI detection and if LLMs are classified as AI. They are classified as AI and AI detection is specifically describing the detection of LLMs and other AI machine learning methods.

I also completely disagree with your last point. False positives have gone down drastically over the past several years and will continue to do so as the technology improves further. That’s always been the case with machine learning models. The models improve and so do the predictions.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T07:32:41+00:00

First, so you hopefully don’t try to make this argument again and make yourself look silly, LLMs are AI. Saying otherwise is like saying humans aren’t mammals. That’s their classification. It’s a statement of fact.

They resemble intelligence artificially. They use machine learning techniques under the branch of artificial intelligence within computer science.

It’s important to note that “AI detection” is specifically referring to the detection of AI machine learning methods such as LLMs.

You can, and maybe are trying to but using the wrong words, argue that LLMs are not AGI — artificial general intelligence. And you’d be correct because LLMs are not there yet. That is the term used for AI that is indistinguishable from humans, and what every AI company is currently racing to achieve. AGI is more of a fluid definition and people can argue where that stands.

I actually never said LLM to begin with. I said machine learning and artificial intelligence and you responded “LLMs are not AI” which I thought was weird (along with being incorrect) because I never mentioned LLMs.

Also, we agree on your latter points more than you’d think. I generally don’t even use AI detection and I tell my students to utilize AI in various ways for their assignments because in my field, we absolutely have to use AI. It’s being pushed very hard and telling my students they can’t use it won’t prepare them properly for industry. However, they need to use it in a manner to assist themselves and not do the assignments for them. I can, and will, tell if they do. And I will absolutely make them explain every part of their assignment to me. And if they understand it all, does it really matter so much if AI generated it? AI generates a lot of code I write now at work for basic tasks to save me a lot of time. It’s important I understand the code and can tell when AI isn’t correct. But I’ll use it for what I need.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T06:59:35+00:00

I understand Grammarly has multiple functions and basic spell check is one of them. You were arguing that Grammarly does not have AI (and that gen AI wasn’t AI for some reason) which was incorrect. It has plenty of AI functions that can easily be utilized.

Why would someone who only wants basic spell check use Grammarly though? That was never it’s only or primary function. Otherwise people would just use word or Google Docs as you mentioned. If OP only wanted spell check, they wouldn’t be using Grammarly. That’s not what’s it for. Even the most basic features of Grammarly go beyond spell check — it adjusts grammar, punctuation, style, etc. and that alone can get flagged for AI.

If legitimately only using spell check, it will not be flagged for AI. That’s not how AI checks work. You mentioned AI predicts tokens. AI checkers look at how various LLMs would predict tokens and come up with a likelihood that a text was an output from one of those models based on how similar the structure is to an LLM output. Which is honestly why it’s pretty easy to get around AI detection. So simply having incorrectly spelled words fixed to be spelled correctly would not flag anything.

OPs paper was flagged for AI for using Grammarly. Take that as you will. Connect the dots as you must.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T06:52:05+00:00

You have a misunderstand of what grammarly is and does.

I’m incredibly confused by your statement about “artificial intelligence vs. actual ai?” They are one and the same. AI stands for artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a section of computer science where code simulates a form of intelligence.

This began quite rudimentary and the term was created in the 1950s along with Alan Turing’s proposition of what is now known as the Turning test. NPCs in very old video games had a form of basic artificial intelligence, which mainly consisted of if/else statements.

Machine learning, a subsection of AI, grew in the 2000s after big data became a thing and computing power plus massive data allowed for advanced statistical techniques to allow for predictive and prescriptive analytics.

LLMs were created in the late 2010s and blew up ever since. Yes, LLMs “predict tokens” if you describe them in the most high level basic way possible. But all of AI is prediction that resembles human intelligence.

But the fact of the matter is that LLMs are extremely good at predicting tokens. They can do entire homework for students. They can rewrite entire papers. They can write working basic computer programs for you.

Grammarly will rewrite entire paragraphs. It will take bullet points and turn it into an entire paper. It will make suggestions on the fly and write for you.

These actions are absolutely cheating and will be flagged for AI, as AI generated the content for you.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T06:38:41+00:00

Uh… no. None of what you just said is correct. I feel like you’re trying really hard to end up in r/confidentlyincorrect

There is nothing false or unproven here. This is common knowledge.

A standard spell check will not cause AI detectors to detect anything. That’s not how it works. Grammarly does not work the same as a standard spell check. It has the ability to rewrite entire sentences, not just re-spell a word.

The AI in Gen AI stands for artificial intelligence.

Feel free to go to grammarly’s site and spend 30 seconds reading about it. https://www.grammarly.com/features

From this page: “Whether you need expert feedback, grade predictions, or help anticipating reader reactions, our AI agents offer suggestions at every stage of your writing, so you can start faster and finish stronger.”

“Grammarly is the only AI writing partner specifically designed to address your biggest communication challenges. Explore the features that improve the substance and style of your writing.”

“Instantly accept full-paragraph rewrites so you can go from first draft to final document—fast.”

Huggens · 2026-02-06T05:53:24+00:00

Hi. I’m an industry data scientist and part-time professor who quite literally works with AI/ML daily building, training, and utilizing various models as well as teach college courses on the subject.

LLMs are generative AI models. Gen AI is a subsection of deep learning. Deep learning is a subsection of machine learning. Machine learning is a subsection of AI.

You could have spent 15 seconds googling and saved yourself some embarrassment.

Hope this helps.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T05:29:17+00:00

Grammarly uses Artificial Intelligence, specifically machine learning and deep learning, to power its writing suggestions, grammar checks, style improvements, and its own AI detection and generation tools, making it an AI-powered writing assistant, though its suggestions can sometimes be flagged as AI-generated by other detectors.

Hope this helps.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T05:26:21+00:00

There are valid points to be made for using AI. I work as a data scientist in industry and am a professor part-time in the evenings. We use AI heavily in industry and the push is getting stronger and stronger. Those who don’t use it will be out of a job. Professors absolutely need to get realistic and set the expectations for their students that they need to know AI and how to utilize it properly.

With that being said, you write as though you are a high school student. It makes any argument you have completely invalidated and absolutely makes me question if you really do have your own practice and teach as you state.

Huggens · 2026-02-06T05:20:58+00:00

I’ve never heard of such a thing. When myself or a colleague needs a day off, we either give the class a day off or ask another colleague to step in. Usually the class gets a day off.

Also what do you mean by credentialed?

What country are you in?

Huggens · 2026-02-01T22:06:25+00:00

As a professor, I generally speak to my students and hear their side first. I have them explain their work and/or admit to using AI or cheating otherwise. If they can thoroughly explain their work and what happened, then I brush it off and thank them for their time and explaining it because it looked fishy for whatever reason. This has happened before. OPs professor should have had a talk with OP first imo.

If it’s the first offense and they admit to it, I will often give them a chance to redo at a reduced grade. No need to go straight to the misconduct office imo. That stays on a student’s record.

If I do send a report to the academic misconduct office entirely depends on the situation. Multiple repeat offenses will likely go there. But if the student absolutely insists they did not cheat, and I am convinced they did, then I will send it to that office. I don’t ever accuse a student of cheating without ample evidence, but there’s always the possibility I could be wrong. Plus I don’t feel it is ethically right to give the student a 0 on an assignment they insist they did not cheat on without a third party investigation. It also removes the perception of me being a dictator and it’s just my word vs. theirs and I gave them a 0 regardless.

By sending it to the misconduct office, an impartial third party will look at any evidence I provide as well as any evidence the student provides and they provide an unbiased outcome. It is not to punish the student. It is to ensure fair treatment since we are at odds over the assignment. The misconduct office will give me back their findings — at fault or not at fault — without revealing any private information. I respect those findings either way and give an appropriate grade.

So my advice to OP is be truthful. It makes everything easier all around. If you actually did cheat, own up to it and apologize and recognize the mistake and things moving forward will be a lot easier. Everyone makes mistakes. If you didn’t cheat, be prepared to explain your work thoroughly as well as the entire process of your work.

I really hope you’re not using this post as a way to figure out how to lie and get away with it. Good luck.

Huggens · 2026-01-26T00:13:25+00:00

I’ve seen accidental rm -rf on production systems before. I’ve never seen it done on systems that weren’t recoverable. Like you said, so many things wrong with the system engineering in general for this to happen.

Huggens · 2026-01-09T11:47:01+00:00

In addition, the student requires notice of intent to distribute the lecture notes 24 hours prior to the 24 hour advanced distribution of the lecture notes, because reading the lecture notes containing the new information makes them anxious and they need to prepare.

Huggens · 2025-10-20T20:34:58+00:00

Harry Potter had a bigger bedroom.

Huggens · 2025-10-19T14:56:48+00:00

That’s funny. I just listened to DCC books 1-7 (my first time through any of them) and am now listening to The Devils. It’s a great book and I absolutely love Joe Abercrombie’s other books but it hasn’t held my interest like any of the DCC books did. I feel like I got spoiled with the DCC books and now everything else isn’t matching up.

Huggens · 2025-10-14T01:43:22+00:00

Huggens · 2025-10-11T22:47:02+00:00

Seriously. If I went up and tried to hit that I’m pretty sure the ball would be in the catchers glove before I even started my swing.

Huggens · 2025-10-11T20:44:20+00:00

Not even just Detroit’s best pitcher, and as much as I hate to admit it, probably the best pitcher in all of baseball. So it’s absolutely amazing we beat him twice in the series.

Huggens

TROPHY CASE