into daily life. Rarely has that been more clear than a case out of Emory University in which the school went from awarding students with an entrepreneurship prize worth $10,000 for their AI-powered studying tool to suspending them for it,. No, the students didn't suddenly misuse the tool, known as Eightball, in any way; they did just as they said they would, and all the while, Emory promoted them — until they didn't.
Eightball allowed students to turn any coursework or readings into practice tests or flashcards for studying. It also connected to Canvas — the platform professors at Emory use to share course documents with their students. A demo video for Eightball called it similar tobut trained on Canvas courses, looking at everything from lectures to slides, rather than students having to upload each PDF individually to the tool.
Emory's Honor Council accused Eightball's creators of cheating, plagiarizing and helping other students violate the Honor Code in November 2023 and the duo shut the tool down. The Council also claimed Eightball attached to Canvas without permission, despite it being stated during the awards competition in Spring 2023.
Yet, the Honor Council recommended a year suspension for one of the students, Benjamin Craver, and expulsion for the other . The Council's director called the situation "unprecedented" due to the harm it could cause at Emory. Craver was eventually suspended for the summer and fall 2024 semesters — after which he would need to apply for readmission. He was also given a mark on his permanent record and required to complete an educational program.