Student Guidance

Students must familiarize themselves with the SMU Student Code of Conduct by visiting the main Student Affairs website. Additionally, students should review any School- or College-specific guidance, and understand how to maintain academic integrity.

Students should expect every course to include an explicit statement about the use or prohibition of Generative AI use and must respect the disciplinary and course-specific differences across the curriculum.

For any unclear areas, students should discuss the parameters with their instructors as questions arise. Students should treat the use of AI as they would assistance from another person (e.g., another person cannot substantially complete a task like writing an essay, so it is also unacceptable to have AI complete that task).

Students should familiarize themselves with SMU’s guidance on privacy and data security. Having access to data does not mean students have permission to scrape the data or use it to train an AI model.

Whether AI is permissible or not, it should never replace learning but serve as a partner. Students and faculty may have values-based reasons for using or not using AI, and open discussion about AI use is recommended in these cases.

SMU Honor Code in the AI Era: Guidance of Acceptable/Not Acceptable

 

SMU Honor Code Category

Description (from SMU Honor Code context)

Examples of Violations Involving AI

Examples of Acceptable AI Use

Cheating

Giving or receiving unauthorized aid on assignments, exams, or projects.

• Using ChatGPT or Copilot to write an entire essay when the instructor prohibits AI use. 
• Entering quiz questions into an AI to get answers during an exam.

• Using AI for practice questions or self-testing before an exam (with no sharing of graded material). • Asking AI to explain a concept, not to complete the graded task.

Plagiarism

Presenting another’s words or ideas as your own without proper attribution.

• Copying AI-generated text or images into a paper and not disclosing the use of AI. 
• Submitting AI-generated code as original work.

• Quoting an AI output with attribution: “Generated using ChatGPT, OpenAI, 2025.”
• Using AI to summarize readings, but writing your own synthesis and citing accordingly.

Fabrication

Falsifying or inventing information, data, or sources.

• Using AI to generate fake survey results or lab data. 
• Letting AI “hallucinate” references and including them as if real.

• Using AI to simulate data for a methods course when explicitly permitted as a modeling exercise.

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty

Helping another person violate the Honor Code.

• Sharing an AI prompt that reproduces a current exam or assignment for others to submit. 
• Running someone else’s assignment through AI to improve it for them.

• Showing a peer how to properly disclose AI use or cite generated content.

Impeding Investigation

Interfering with or lying to the Honor Council or instructors during an inquiry.

• Deleting AI chat histories or falsifying screenshots to conceal unauthorized use.
 • Claiming “the AI wrote it by accident” when evidence shows deliberate use.

• Being transparent and cooperative about when and how AI was used if asked.

Misrepresentation

Misleading faculty about the source or authenticity of your work.

• Claiming AI-generated writing as your personal draft. 
• Uploading AI images or code to a portfolio without disclosure.

• Stating in a reflection: “AI assisted in outlining and grammar suggestions; final content authored by me.”