Eightball was meant to be an AI tool that turned subjects into study aids such as flashcards and practice tests. Its creators, Emory University students, won Emory's pitch competition last year, winning a grand prize of $10,000 and the promotion from the university on its own social media channels.
Although Emory initially appeared to support Eightball, the university recently decided to suspend the students who created it.
Benjamin Craver, one of the suspended student founders behind Eightball, filed a lawsuit against Emory University on Monday detailing how Eightball went from a vaunted, public AI tool that Emory helped fund and promote to one that the school demanded it was closed.
Craver says the suspension, which he appealed and school was reduced to one semester, affects his ability to graduate with his class, write an honors thesis and apply to law school.
Craver, who handled the marketing side of Eightball, could have been suspended for a year, and his developer co-founder, who remained unidentified in 27 page lawsuitcould have been expelled because of the school's concern that the Eightball “may” have been used to cheat — though Craver claims there is no evidence of that.
Emory University Campus (Photo by Davis Turner/Getty Images)
According to the lawsuit, Emory told Craver in November that Eightball “may be used by students to complete assignments in violation of the university's Academic Honor Code,” which prevents students from “intentionally” helping other students cheat, plagiarize or violate the code of honor.
The Emory Honor Council conducted an investigation and held a hearing in January about Eightball.
The council heard from two Emory employees as witnesses who noted that Eightball's integration with Canvas, an online platform that contains course materials, was a “major concern.”
Craver claimed that he and his co-founder told the university about Canvas' potential connection to the pitch competition they won in the spring of 2023. Only a handful of students actually connected to their Canvas accounts, according to the filing.
After the hearing, the Honor Council stated that “Eightball is based on a plan that includes the ability to cheat” meaning that Craver and his co-founder knew it could be used that way “and built it on purpose.”
Craver's statement noted that he was not questioned about his intentions and that “none of the witnesses at any time described how the Eightball could be used to cheat or presented any evidence that anyone had actually used the Eightball to cheated”.
The council recommended a one-year suspension for Craver and expulsion for his co-founder. The school has since reduced the discipline to a semester-long suspension for each of them. Craver is suing to avoid being suspended altogether.
The case ties into a broader question of how to keep AI safe and accountable as more people use it. ChatGPT creator OpenAI, one of the world's largest artificial intelligence companies, has recently seen two research directions for AI security resignincluding Jan Leike, who said he left because he felt that OpenAI did not prioritize AI security.
Connected: Now that OpenAI's Superalignment Team has disbanded, who's preventing AI from going rogue?
Emory University did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur's request for comment.