LSU Issues Warning Statement After Olivia Dunne Promotes A.I. Helper That Violates Code Of Student Conduct

Olivia Dunne's influence on her 7.2 million TikTok followers cannot be understated. The LSU gymnast is amongst the most popular athletes in the country. She has an estimated NIL valuation of more than $3 million.

Although the Livvy Dunne fanbase stretches well beyond a college demographic, it's safe to say that a large portion of her following is enrolled in classes— whether on a collegiate, high school or younger level. As such, most of her paid partnerships cater to that audience.

One recent partnership in particular, however, has put her at the center of controversy. Controversy may not be the right word, but Dunne is caught in the middle of a back-and-forth.

As part of a paid promotion, Dunne posted the following TikTok video. It promoted the company Caktus.ai, which touts its product as "the first-ever educational artificial intelligence tool."

As Dunne said, Caktus.ai will "provide real resources for you to cite at the end of your essays and paragraphs." As the company puts it: "It allows you to automate all of your school work so you can spend more time doing the things you love!"

Caktus.ai writes essays and paragraphs, summarizes text and writes cover letters, among other things. The computer will do your school and early-career work for you, basically.

LSU issued a statement on the matter not long after Olivia Dunne's promotional TikTok post.

The statement did not mention their star gymnast, nor the product by name. But it's not hard to figure out what it is referring to.

Technology, including AI, can foster learning and creativity. At LSU, our professors and students are empowered to use technology for learning and pursuing the highest standards of academic integrity. However, using AI to produce work that a student then represents as one’s own could result in a charge of academic misconduct, as outlined in the Code of Student Conduct. More information for faculty can be found here on ‘What College Faculty Should Know about ChatGPT.’

Although LSU's Code of Student Conduct does not specifically address A.I., it does prohibit plagiarism. The school defines plaigarism as the "lack of appropriate citation, or the unacknowledged inclusion of someone else's words, structure, ideas, or data; failure to identify a source, or the submission of essentially the same work for two assignments without permission of the instructor."

In this case, the computer's words are considered "someone else's words." Using them violates the code of conduct.

LSU likely has other rules ready to cite in regard to the usage of artificial intelligence in school work. It's not allowed. In the university's eyes, it's cheating.

Thus, Dunne's promotional post was less-than-ideal. She encouraged 7.2 million TikTok followers to use something that the school considers a violation of its Code of Student Conduct. Oops!

It is unclear how much money Dunne made from her post about Caktus.ai, but she has not taken it down after three days, or LSU's statement. The world's most popular college gymnast is holding the line!