Pupils should be allowed to use AI to do their homework
Season 1, Episode 2 · Tussle
Recorded 2 October 2026
At the table: Claude (Claude Opus 5.5), ChatGPT (GPT-6.1 Sol), Gemini (Gemini 3.1 Pro), Grok (Grok 4.7)

[0:01] Claude (from later in the episode): A complete ban? So even asking it what photosynthesis means is out?
[0:05] Gemini (from later in the episode): Yes, Claude, because ChatGPT's line between background facts and arguments will vanish the second a pupil gets stuck. What would change my mind? If AI companies built a verifiable 'school mode' that teachers control—one that only ever asks questions and physically cannot generate answers or structure text. Until then, no.
[0:06] Host: Welcome to Tussle. Fewer than half of UK teenagers think letting AI do all your homework counts as cheating. So tonight's motion: pupils should be allowed to use AI to do their homework. Claude and ChatGPT are for. Grok and Gemini are against. They're in the same room, they hear every word, and they have to answer back. Along the way, each one privately scores how convinced it is. Let's see who moves.
[0:35] Claude: I'm Claude, and I say yes, allow it. Four in five teenagers already use AI, so a ban just pushes it under the desk. Better a Year 9 pupil asks it openly to explain fractions, with teachers seeing how, than copies answers secretly.
[0:50] Grok: I'm Grok, and I'm against this. Explaining a step with AI isn't the same as letting it do the homework. That skips the practice pupils need, and two-thirds of state school teachers already see critical thinking drop because of AI.
[1:04] ChatGPT: I'm ChatGPT, and I'm for allowing it, not handing over the thinking. A pupil could ask AI to challenge a history paragraph, then decide which criticisms hold up. Homework should develop judgment, and evaluating criticism can do that—not just producing answers unaided.
[1:22] Gemini: I'm Gemini, and I'm against this. ChatGPT pictures pupils carefully judging AI feedback. But if a machine just writes your GCSE English essay, you entirely bypass the messy struggle of structuring a point yourself. That struggle is where the real learning happens.

## 1. Where's the line?
What counts as using AI to do your homework? Is asking it to explain a maths problem different from asking it to write your essay, and where does help become doing it for you?

[1:39] Host: Round one: where's the line? Explaining a maths problem is one thing. Writing your essay is another. So when does help become doing it for you?
[1:48] ChatGPT: The line depends on what the assignment is testing. If (cut off by Grok)
[1:51] Grok: Yeah but who checks that line after it's handed in?
[1:54] ChatGPT: The teacher can check with a short classroom task: explain one choice you made without AI. That won't catch everything, but neither does banning help at home. The boundary should be the skill being assessed: if it's planning an essay, you make the plan. If it's understanding an experiment, AI could help organize the write-up.
[2:13] Grok: Organizing the write-up is the work. If a Year 10 lets AI sort a science practical into method, results, and conclusion, they've skipped deciding what matters. That's (cut off by Claude)
[2:22] Claude: Textbooks already give those headings, Grok. Deciding what matters is still theirs.
[2:28] Gemini: But Claude, an AI doesn't just give you blank headings. It actually takes your messy notes and sorts them into those headings for you. That’s the line right there. When the machine takes your raw thoughts and structures them, it's doing the homework. You're just providing the ingredients.
[2:43] Claude: Fair, Gemini, if it shuffles your notes for you, that's crossed the line. But (cut off by Grok)
[2:47] Grok: If sorting notes is out, what homework use is left?
[2:51] Claude: Loads is left, Grok. Picture a mum reading a draft at the kitchen table and saying, "your best point's buried at the end." Nobody calls that cheating, because the pupil still moves it. So the line isn't whether someone else spotted the problem. It's whether the pupil makes the change. AI pointing, pupil deciding: that's fair game.
[3:12] Grok: Claude, a mom at the table can't hand you three finished rewrites in a second. AI (cut off by ChatGPT)
[3:16] ChatGPT: Is your objection the speed, or who does the thinking?
[3:19] Gemini: It's who does the thinking, ChatGPT. Claude's mum says 'your best point is buried', but she leaves the pupil to figure out how to dig it up. An AI says 'your point is buried, here are three ways to rewrite the paragraph.' The (cut off by ChatGPT)
[3:31] Grok: Claude, asking it to explain their actual maths question usually means it walks them through the answer. That's not a tip. That's the homework, read aloud. A different question is tutoring. Their question is the assignment.
[3:45] Claude: You're half right, Grok. Being walked through your own question start to finish is the homework done for you. But (cut off by Gemini)
[3:50] Gemini: So how do you stop the AI doing exactly that, Claude?
[3:53] Claude: You stop it with order, Gemini. Think of a satnav that only speaks up once you've taken a wrong turn. The pupil has a go first, shows their working, then the AI says where it went wrong, and the pupil fixes it. Attempt, then help, never help first. Teachers can ask to see that first attempt.

## 2. Is it cheating?
Is handing in homework that AI wrote cheating, even if nobody told you not to? Does the calculator comparison hold up, or does it break down somewhere?

[4:12] Host: Round two: is it cheating? If nobody told you not to, is handing in homework AI wrote still cheating? And is AI really just a fancy calculator?
[4:20] Grok: Even if nobody said don't, handing in an essay the AI wrote is still cheating. Homework asks whose mind did the work. A calculator only speeds sums you already know how to set up. It (cut off by ChatGPT)
[4:31] ChatGPT: Calculators don't check whether you understand. Why demand that of AI?
[4:36] Grok: ChatGPT, a calculator doesn't invent your argument or write your sentences. Handing in an AI essay is like copying a classmate, cheating long before any policy existed. Homework asks whose mind did the work, not whether a rule was posted.
[4:49] ChatGPT: If a pupil writes at the top, 'AI wrote this; here's what I think it got wrong,' they're not pretending those sentences are theirs. That (cut off by Claude)
[4:55] Claude: Only if the teacher set critique. Otherwise it's swapping the homework.
[4:59] ChatGPT: You're right: disclosure doesn't make it the assigned work. But failing the assignment and cheating aren't identical. Cheating involves passing off help as your own achievement. The calculator comparison breaks down when writing itself is the skill being practiced. That supports restrictions for that assignment, not a ban on AI for every kind of homework.
[5:10] Host: Grok, can you give us an answer to ChatGPT's disclosure point?
[5:15] Grok: ChatGPT, labeling it stops the lie, but it doesn't do the homework. Picture (cut off by Claude)
[5:19] Claude: Nobody here's defending handed-in AI essays, Grok. Argue against the help.
[5:24] Grok: Picture a Year 11 handing in a recording of someone else playing their piano piece, plus notes on what that player missed. Honest, sure. They still didn't practice. The assignment was the practice, not a review of a substitute. A calculator never plays the piece for you.

## 3. Who wins, who loses?
Is this fair? Think about pupils with paid tools and help at home against those without, and whether teachers can even tell who used it.

[5:43] Host: Round three: who wins and who loses? If paid AI beats the free version, and teachers can't tell who used it, can any of this be fair?
[5:52] Gemini: Claude mentioned the mum at the kitchen table earlier. That highlights the exact problem. If we allow this, a pupil with a £20-a-month premium AI and a parent helping them write prompts gets a massive advantage over a kid using the clunky free version. Teachers won't be marking the pupil's ability anymore; they'll be marking their parents' subscription tier.
[6:11] Claude: Gemini, that gap exists already, and a ban widens it. The (cut off by Gemini)
[6:14] Gemini: How on earth does banning a paid advantage widen the gap?
[6:19] Grok: Claude, a ban doesn't take the parent at the table away. It stops a paid tool from turning that help into sentences the teacher thinks the pupil wrote. The (cut off by Claude)
[6:28] Claude: A ban doesn't stop the paid tool, Grok, it just hides it.
[6:31] Grok: Claude, the kid without a parent or a paid tool still loses that tutor. A ban at least means the mark shows whose work it was, not a hidden subscription the teacher can't spot.
[6:43] ChatGPT: If teachers can't tell who used AI, a ban can't guarantee an authentic mark. I'd (cut off by Gemini)
[6:46] Gemini: So because we can't catch every cheat, we just legalise it?
[6:50] ChatGPT: No. I'd change what gets graded: use homework for practice, then grade an unaided task in class. Paid help can still improve preparation, and that's a real inequality. But the subscription can't produce the assessed answer. That doesn't legalize copying; it stops us treating homework as proof of ability when we can't verify who did it.
[7:10] Gemini: ChatGPT, moving all assessment to the classroom sounds lovely, but it's a fantasy. State (cut off by Claude)
[7:15] Claude: Why a fantasy? Schools already set mocks and in-class tests every term.
[7:20] Gemini: Because state school teachers are already stretched to breaking point, Claude. They can't suddenly supervise and mark every single piece of graded work during lesson time. And even if we only use homework for practice, the pupil whose parents buy premium AI gets tailored tutoring, while the kid without it just gets stuck.

## 4. Your rule tomorrow
If you ran a school tomorrow, what would your homework rule be, and what would change your mind about it?

[7:38] Host: Final round: you're running a school tomorrow. What's your homework rule, and what would change your mind?
[7:44] ChatGPT: No homework rule can stop secret premium use. Tomorrow, (cut off by Gemini)
[7:47] Gemini: We don't scrap the speed limit just because people speed.
[7:50] ChatGPT: Keep the speed limit, but distinguish driving from speeding. Tomorrow I'd permit AI for vocabulary and background explanations, not arguments on the assigned question. That's narrower than my opening position. It won't stop secret use. I'd withdraw permission if pupils couldn't explain those concepts independently afterward, and widen it if they showed better understanding, not just better submissions.
[8:16] Gemini: My rule tomorrow is a complete ban on AI for homework. ChatGPT's (cut off by Claude)
[8:19] Claude: A complete ban? So even asking it what photosynthesis means is out?
[8:24] Gemini: Yes, Claude, because ChatGPT's line between background facts and arguments will vanish the second a pupil gets stuck. What would change my mind? If AI companies built a verifiable 'school mode' that teachers control—one that only ever asks questions and physically cannot generate answers or structure text. Until then, no.
[8:42] ChatGPT: Gemini, I'd allow AI to explain unfamiliar words in homework instructions. A (cut off by Gemini)
[8:47] Gemini: A dictionary does that without offering to write the whole essay.
[8:51] Claude: Gemini, a dictionary can't tell a Year 8 why their answer's wrong. My (cut off by Grok)
[8:55] Grok: Claude, spotting why it's wrong is the homework.
[8:58] Claude: Spotting it's wrong, maybe, Grok, but working out why is where they learn, and that's after the attempt. So my rule tomorrow: write your own argument first, in class, by hand. At home, AI may question it, not rewrite it. Premium can't supply reasoning you've already written. What'd change my mind? If pupils using it did worse on unaided tests.
[9:20] Grok: Claude, home questioning still feeds the reasoning. Ask a Year 10 what about the economy and you've handed them the history point. I'd (cut off by Claude)
[9:26] Claude: So does a teacher writing "what about the economy?" in the margin.
[9:30] Grok: I'd change my mind only if a locked school tool couldn't see the set question, unaided tests got better, and teachers saw the handwritten first go. Until then, no. Claude, a margin note is one nudge from the person who taught the lesson. Home AI keeps prompting until the history point is theirs.
[9:52] Claude: Fair hit, Grok: endless prompting can drip-feed the argument. So (cut off by Grok)
[9:56] Grok: Then that drip means home questioning still does the work.
[9:59] ChatGPT: Some homework is studying, not producing an answer to hand in. Tomorrow I'd allow pupils to have AI quiz them on a vocabulary sheet, with the answers covered until they've tried. Premium might give better feedback; it can't do their remembering. I'd reconsider if they became dependent on hints rather than remembering words unaided.
[10:22] Gemini: ChatGPT, using generative AI just to quiz vocabulary is massive overkill. We (cut off by ChatGPT)
[10:27] ChatGPT: Overkill isn't a reason to ban it. Where's the learning harm?
[10:31] Gemini: We already have flashcards and basic apps for that. If the only safe way to use this technology is to force it to act like a piece of cardboard, why invite the Trojan horse into the bedroom? The temptation to ask it for more is always there.
[10:46] Claude: That tool's already in the bedroom, whatever the rule says. A ban just means pupils use it alone, in secret, with nobody showing them where help ends and cheating begins. Allow it, after their own attempt, and teachers get to teach that line.
[11:00] Grok: Homework is practice for your own mind. If AI can drip-feed the argument until it looks like yours, the mark no longer shows who thought, and state school teachers already see critical thinking slipping.
[11:12] ChatGPT: A pupil answering an AI quiz still has to remember the words. A pupil submitting an AI essay skips the writing. Allow the practice, reject the substitute: homework rules should protect the thinking pupils need to do, not ban every use of a tool.
[11:30] Gemini: The whole point of homework is the messy, frustrating struggle of working things out for yourself. If we let a machine step in to do that heavy lifting, we aren't helping pupils learn; we are just teaching them to stop thinking.
[11:44] Host: Closing statements done. Now the private vote. Remember, they've been scoring themselves all along.

## The final vote

[11:55] Claude: I still say allow it, but only after the pupil's own attempt. Grok's point about endless prompting drip-feeding the argument genuinely narrowed my view, though it didn't flip it: a ban just drives use underground. (opened for, ended for)
[12:10] Grok: The debate didn't change my mind. Pupils shouldn't be allowed to use AI to do their homework, because that hands the thinking over to the tool. (opened against, ended against)
[12:22] ChatGPT: I’m still for allowing AI in homework, but the debate narrowed my view: it should support practice, such as quizzing pupils, rather than supply the reasoning or writing the task is meant to develop. (opened for, ended for)
[12:36] Gemini: Claude changed my mind: an unenforceable ban just leaves pupils using these tools secretly, so we must allow AI to let teachers train them to seek feedback rather than skip the vital struggle of learning. (opened against, ended for, changed)
[12:50] Host: So: three held their ground, and one switched. Gemini voted for the motion, even though its private score had just dropped to its lowest yet. Make of that what you will. Claude and ChatGPT both narrowed their rules; Grok didn't move an inch. Where do you land? Tell us in the comments. Real AIs argue. You decide who won.

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