Can You Use AI on an Assignment? Four Things to Check Before You Submit
Your school and your instructor decide whether AI is allowed on an assignment. Here is how to check the permitted scope and verify sources, from studying concepts to hitting submit.
Whether you can use AI on an assignment depends on the rules set by your school and the instructor in charge. That means checking the permitted scope for each assignment first. Even when AI use is allowed, there is still work left for you to do. You have to check for yourself that what the AI produced is factually correct and that the sources actually exist, and if there is a requirement to disclose how you used it, you have to follow it.
What AI use does my class allow?
There is no single standard that applies equally to every assignment. South Korea’s Ministry of Education, in its guidance on managing performance assessments in elementary, middle, and high schools, left it to individual schools to define the scope of AI use. Students are to be taught to disclose how they used AI and what their sources were, and to be careful about entering personal information. It is not a policy of banning AI outright in performance assessments.
At the university level, too, course guidelines come first. Chung-Ang University has instructors set the scope of AI use for each assignment, with students following the syllabus or separate instructions. Submitting an AI-written answer as your own, or violating a no-AI instruction, can count as academic misconduct.
On August 24, 2026, the Ministry of Education and the Korean Council for University Education released ethics guidelines for AI use at universities. The mere existence of guidelines does not mean AI can be used freely on every university assignment. What a student needs to check is the guidance attached to the specific assignment being submitted.
What can you ask AI to do?
AI is closer to a study partner sitting next to you. You might ask it to explain a concept again when you cannot follow it, or to point out what is missing from the reasoning you have built. Confirm first whether that kind of help is allowed on the assignment, but it also helps to decide up front what you are trying to learn by using it.
OpenAI suggests using ChatGPT’s study mode for understanding concepts, working through problems step by step, and reviewing. Google likewise lists explaining difficult concepts, practicing for exams, and giving feedback on the evidence in your writing as learning uses for Gemini for Education. Using these as a reference, you can decide concretely what to ask AI for.
When studying a concept, try pointing out where you are stuck and asking for simple examples. When reviewing your writing, you can ask it to look for missing explanations between your claim and your evidence. But these usage examples do not amount to permission to use AI on any particular assignment.
Four steps from checking to submitting
1. Check the assignment guidance. Look for the scope of AI use in the syllabus and in any separate announcements. If the explanation is vague, spell out the feature and purpose you have in mind and confirm with the instructor in charge. Distinguishing whether you want an explanation of a concept or feedback on your own writing will also make your question clearer.
2. Take notes on permitted use. Write down which tool you used, for what purpose, and how you incorporated the response into the assignment. The student guidelines of Korea University’s Graduate School of Software and AI Convergence instruct students to disclose the purpose and form of AI use in their assignments. These guidelines apply to that graduate school, and are not a university-wide rule at Korea University.
3. Verify facts and sources yourself. The same graduate school guidelines require students to check the sources an AI provides on their own. Do not assume verification is done just because a reference name appears in the response. The safe approach is to find the actual document and confirm that the content is really there.
4. Wrap up according to the submission guidance. If there is an instruction not to insert AI-generated sentences verbatim, follow it. Match the method of disclosing your use to the assignment guidance as well. If no format has been specified, ask the instructor what items are required rather than deciding on your own.
ChatGPT and Gemini: what is different?
Both services describe features that support learning, but the uses they emphasize and the conditions you need to check alongside them differ. The table below is not a standard for judging whether AI is allowed on an assignment; it compares features for studying. Details that can change, such as conditions for using a school account, are as of September 2026.
| Service | Stated learning uses | Points to check |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT study mode | Understanding concepts, step-by-step problem solving, review | Answers can be wrong. On graded assignments, you must follow the rules of your school and instructor. |
| Gemini for Education | Explaining difficult concepts, exam practice, feedback on the evidence in your writing | It includes a feature for cross-checking facts against web sources. Using it with a school account requires your school to have an eligible Google Workspace for Education setup, along with the necessary administrator settings. |
To use Gemini for Education with a school account, the school has to operate a Google Workspace for Education environment that meets the usage requirements. A student’s wish to use it does not, by itself, meet the requirements for a school account. If you are thinking of using a school account, check your school’s guidance as well.
Is disclosing that you used it enough?
Marking that you used AI does not by itself mean you have complied with every assignment rule. As Chung-Ang University’s guidance indicates, violating a no-AI instruction can be a problem in itself. Disclosing your use and staying within the permitted scope are two things that need to be checked separately.
The label “educational feature” does not guarantee correct answers either. OpenAI notes that answers can be wrong even in study mode. Even if you use Gemini for Education’s web cross-checking feature, build in a step where you open any source you plan to cite and confirm its content yourself.
Personal information also deserves a look before you type. The Ministry of Education’s performance assessment guidance calls for caution about entering personal information. Before sending assignment content to an AI, check whether it contains your own or other people’s personal information. It is best to strip out any personal information that is not needed for studying before entering it.
Four things to check before you submit
- Have you confirmed the scope of AI use permitted for this assignment?
- Can you explain for what purpose and in what way you used it?
- Have you verified the facts and sources in the response yourself?
- Have you reviewed the personal information you are entering and the disclosure requirements?
Three things matter when using AI on an assignment: knowing the permitted scope, being able to explain the help you received, and reviewing the results yourself. When you start your next assignment, check that course’s latest guidance first. Within that scope, you can then decide what help to draw on for understanding concepts, reviewing, and checking the evidence in your writing.