Should I come clean and risk an F?
Hey hope you all are well, I need some advice. Should I come clean to my professor about using AI to help me structure and draft my essays? Due to personal circumstances (not to detail, but to put in context if I did fail I could ask for an INC), scheduling conflicts (very busy), I found it difficult to keep up with multiple drafts during the semester. Absolutely no AI is allowed, and there is a no late policy as well, and prof grades according to the rules. I know I'm not the worst writer, but I nearly failed my first essay. After that, I decided to use ai anyways to help me - I did all the work down to the outline (thesis and intro content, body content: explanations, topic sentences, quotations, analysis, outro) and then prompted AI for feedback, and to structure an essay using my writing as the input. Then I'd sit for ~ 1-3 hours writing the essay myself, using the AI essay as a reference for my flow. I felt this was more time efficient for my schedule, rather than using the week to brainstorm and constantly draft on my own (which was according to the professor's schedule). My thing is, now that it is the end of the semester I passed but feel kind of bad about it - I don't want to unfairly get the grade and feel like I cheated. Nor do I want it to come bite me back. Even if I did use AI "responsibly" it doesn't take away from me going against the no AI policy. If I said anything about AI, regardless of how I used it, I'm certain it's an automatic F. Any advice? Thank you!
Update: I know the answer seems obvious but this was genuinely concerning me. I received a lot of advice from you all and close friends, I decided to leave it and just learn from this experience. If I decide to take a course with this type of policy, I should know how to handle it - and in this case I made a mistake. I'm passing, but will be careful next time. Moral of the story, AI is a tool and you do the work, and just don't risk violating academic policies. I appreciate all the comments and everyone's time.