Thierry Rignol, a Yale Executive MBA student, has filed a 13-count federal lawsuit against the university after being accused of using generative AI on a final exam. Rignol, who paid $208,500 in tuition, was suspended for a year and received an F in the course Sourcing and Managing Funds. He claims the allegations were based on faulty AI detection tools and political bias. The lawsuit, which has been ongoing since February 2025, now includes claims of breach of contract, civil rights violations, and defamation. Rignol argues that the AI detection tool, GPTZero, falsely flagged his well-structured exam answers as AI-generated, despite his academic excellence and non-native English background. He also alleges that Yale's disciplinary process was designed to suppress his conservative political speech. Source: arstechnica

The dispute began with Rignol's final exam in the spring 2024 session of MGT423E, Sourcing and Managing Funds. The exam was self-timed and open book but closed Internet. Only Rignol's paper was flagged by a teaching assistant for possible AI use, partly due to its unusual length. The professor, K. Geert Rouwenhorst, noted that GPTZero indicated AI use in several answers and that one response showed substantial overlap with ChatGPT output. Additionally, Rignol performed poorly on a question where AI tools were least helpful. The teaching team also questioned whether anyone could have completed such a lengthy and polished exam in four hours. Source: arstechnica

Yale's Honor Committee investigated the case, but Rignol refused to provide the underlying Word file used to create his exam PDF. Finance professor James Choi, leading the investigation, repeatedly asked Rignol for the file, warning that non-cooperation could lead to expulsion. Rignol claimed he was pressured to falsely confess and even alleged that a dean invoked the fear of deportation. Yale denied this, stating Rignol held an investor visa, not a student visa. The Honor Committee eventually accused Rignol of improperly using AI on the final exam, but Rign, in his lawsuit, claims the committee remained silent after he submitted GPTZero scans of works by Yale officials, which yielded false AI detection results. Source: arstechnica