What Counts as AI Assistance in an Assignment?

Your syllabus says you may use AI with acknowledgement, or not at all, or only for some tasks. None of that helps until you know which of the things you actually did count as AI assistance. Here is the usual map, and how to find where your own course draws the line.

From small fixes to drafting

Most AI help sits somewhere on a line. At one end the tool touches your words lightly. At the other it produces them.

• Spelling and grammar fixes: correcting errors in sentences you wrote.
• Feedback: comments on your draft that you act on yourself.
• Brainstorming and planning: ideas, questions or an outline you then write from.
• Finding and understanding sources: explanations, summaries, suggested reading.
• Rewording and paraphrasing: a tool rewrites your sentences.
• Translating: text you wrote in one language, submitted in another.
• Drafting: a tool writes passages that end up in your submission.

The further down that list you go, the more of the submitted words come from the tool, and the more likely a course is to restrict it or ask you to say so.

How courses draw the line

Policies vary, but most follow one of three patterns: no AI for this task, AI allowed with acknowledgement, or AI allowed for named tasks only. More universities are moving to the second. The University of Sydney, for example, allows AI in its open assessments as long as students acknowledge it, and treats two things as breaches: using paraphrasing tools where they are prohibited, and submitting AI work without acknowledgement.

What nearly every policy shares is that hiding AI use is the problem, not using it where it is allowed. A few colleges now name tools marketed as "humanizers" in their rules, because those are sold to hide AI use. If your college is one of them, keep any rewriting tool, ours included, away from assessed work.

The grey areas

• Grammar checkers. Fixing spelling and punctuation is often treated as ordinary proofreading. Tools that rewrite whole sentences for style are closer to rewording, and some courses count that as AI assistance.
• Translation. If a tool translated your writing, the submitted wording came from the tool. Many courses want that acknowledged, and language courses often forbid it.
• Feedback. Asking what is unclear and fixing it yourself is lighter help than letting a tool fix it, but some courses still ask you to mention it.
• Search and summaries. Using AI to find or explain sources is research help. Copying its summary into your work is drafting.

How to find your course's line

• Read the assignment brief first. It overrides the general policy more often than students expect.
• Then the course outline, then your university's AI policy.
• If it is still unclear, ask in writing and keep the reply. "Can I use a grammar checker on this essay?" is a normal question.
• When you are not sure whether something counts, say it anyway. Saying too much rarely causes trouble; saying too little is what policies treat as misconduct.

Say what you used, plainly

An acknowledgement is a sentence or two: which tool, what you used it for, and which parts of the work it touched. The guide below has a template you can adapt.

Our editor can draft it for you: tick what you used AI for and it writes the statement next to a record of how the document was written. Our rewriting and drafting tools are AI tools, so if your course asks you to acknowledge AI, they belong in that statement.