Artificial intelligence at universities is not only putting scientists and their evaluation system to the test – it is now also a concern for the judiciary in Bavaria. picture alliance / Caro | Emperor
Three rejected applicants from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are suing against the suspicion of the use of AI in their applications. An urgent application has already been rejected by the Munich Administrative Court, two lawsuits and another urgent application are still pending. The cases show the need for closer exchange between universities and the judiciary regarding AI in teaching, applications and examinations.
The use of artificial intelligence in applications to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is now also a concern for the Bavarian judiciary. Three applicants who were rejected by TUM and who are said to have used AI in their applications have sued, says a spokesman for the university. An urgent application has already been rejected by the Munich Administrative Court, as the court confirmed. However, two lawsuits and an urgent application from two other people relating to the use of AI at TUM are still pending.
In the case already decided, about which the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported, It was about an application essay that “differs noticeably from those of other bachelor’s graduates across its entire scope,” as the administrative court announced. The text contained a lot of information in a comparatively short essay and was also written “in almost error-free, polished English”. The examiners also became suspicious because the application differed greatly from the essay with which the applicant had unsuccessfully applied to the university the year before.
“During the proceedings, the applicant was unable to provide any other comprehensible explanation for these anomalies, which suggest the use of AI in the creation of the essay,” the court said upon request. An urgent application (file number M 3 E 23.4371) was rejected at the end of November 2023, and the main proceedings (M 3 K 23.4370) did not even take place because, according to the court, the plaintiff withdrew his lawsuit. The two other alleged AI cases in which the TU is facing lawsuits are also similar, said a university spokesman.
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“These questions cannot be answered from Bavaria alone,” said the managing director of the University of Bavaria Association
According to the Bavarian Administrative Court, there were initially no other similar proceedings pending at the other administrative courts in the Free State. The managing director of the Association of the University of Bavaria eV, Alexander Fehr, is not aware of any other cases of this kind, as he said when asked by the German Press Agency. The association has set up a working group “in which lawyers from universities who deal with student affairs exchange ideas”. So far, the Bavarian universities have not agreed on a “coordinated approach in the legal sense”. “However, this does not mean that we will not work more closely together on this topic in the future, including during applications and examinations,” said Fehr.
The cases at TUM showed “that we will certainly enter into an even closer exchange with each other, but of course also with universities nationally and internationally, on the topic of AI in teaching, applications and examinations,” he said. “Because these questions cannot be answered from Bavaria alone.”
AA/dpa