09/21/2026

Losing Trust

by Kelly Ahuna

Image credit: iStock

It was June 10^th, already summer, and most 10-month faculty had wrapped up their academic year. But after a record-setting spring semester of academic dishonesty reports, I couldn’t stop thinking about how the introduction of generative AI seems to be eroding trust between faculty and students.

Or maybe it was just my jaded perspective as the director of an Office of Academic Integrity. So on a whim, I put together a quick questionnaire (two demographic questions, three Likert-scale questions, and one open-ended response) and sent it to 130 instructors who had submitted cases within the past academic year.

I really wasn’t expecting much, since I know that many instructors stay away from their university email in summer. To my surprise, the responses came in fast and furious. By week’s end, 65 people had answered, a response rate of 50%!  

Here is what I learned.

The first question was, “To what extent has generative AI eroded the trust you have in your students?” Only one-fifth (20%) responded with “slightly” or “not at all,” while almost two-fifths (38.5%) responded with “quite a bit” or “a great deal.” The other two-fifths (41.5%) answered “moderately.”  This seemed to echo the general feeling I had about the negative influence of AI on the teacher-student relationship, with 80% of respondents identifying a moderate or greater effect.

But the second question, “To what extent has generative AI eroded the trust you have in your students’ work?” revealed a staggering result. None of the respondents chose “not at all,” and only four (6%) chose “slightly.” At the other end of the spectrum, 70.8 percent of respondents chose either “a great deal” or “quite a bit.” The remaining 23% chose moderately. In essence, all faculty in this sample have experienced an erosion of trust in student work. This is astounding to me and seems to lay the groundwork for less satisfaction in teaching.

Finally, I wanted to know if these instructors thought their students’ views of them had changed since AI entered the academic setting. The final question was, “To what extent do you believe that generative AI has eroded the trust your students have in you?” While the same number as the previous question answered “moderately” (23%), the ends of the continuum were flipped, with 67% answering “slightly” or “not at all” and 6% answering “quite a bit.” Only one instructor chose “a great deal” for this answer. Given the negative press about instructors using AI detection tools (which my school does), hiding white text in questions to “catch” cheaters, and false accusations, my guess is that student distrust of professors is greater than what these instructors believe. But I will have to survey our students to find out!

Obviously, this is data from a small sample at one large university. But I imagine the results are representative of a generalized change in the teacher-student relationship across many contexts.

I have started a deep dive into the voluminous responses to the one open-ended question, “If you would like, feel free to elaborate on any of your previous answers.” My initial finding is that instructors have a lot to say about this! In addition to the six pages of single-spaced comments, when asked if they would be willing to participate in an interview or focus group, 43 of the 66 said they would. There is clearly a desire for conversation around this topic.

As people like to say, generative AI is here to stay. But I was a faculty member for 20 years, and I valued my students, their work, and the relationships I formed with them. Those are the things that kept me motivated. As instructors see erosion in these areas, I wonder what will keep them motivated. I hate to raise issues without offering solutions, but I’m not there yet.

Dr. Kelly Ahuna is the Director of the Office of Academic Integrity at the University at Buffalo.