Is it against IB rules to use AI for my IA or EE?

Not in itself. The IB's guiding principle is that using AI to help you learn is acceptable, while using AI to pretend you did something you did not is not acceptable. What matters is that the thinking, analysis and evaluation are genuinely yours, that your supervisor stays involved, and that you declare your use of AI.

Can AI mark my IB coursework and give me feedback?

For work submitted for IB assessment, the IB discourages using AI to mark your work, because your teacher is better placed to give that feedback and only one set of written feedback is permitted. Use AI feedback while you are still learning and drafting, treat it as practice rather than marking, and always take your actual draft to your supervisor.

Can I ask AI to give me a research question?

You should agree the subject and topic area with your teacher or supervisor first. You may then use AI to see example research questions in that area, and you must review and refine them with your supervisor against the assessment criteria. Simply taking an AI-generated research question without that process is not acceptable.

Do I have to declare that I used AI?

Yes. The IB requires transparency. Hiding AI use is academic misconduct even when the use itself would have been acceptable. Reference any AI-generated text you use, include your prompts, and tell your teacher how you used AI.

Our position

Academic integrity & the honest use of AI

IBHighway exists to help you learn — not to produce work you did not do. This page explains, in plain terms, how to use these tools in a way that keeps you on the right side of IB academic integrity rules.

The IB's own guiding principle, from its guidance on AI in student coursework:

1. Did the student use AI to help them learn? If so, then it is acceptable.
2. Did the student use AI to pretend they did something they did not? Then this is not acceptable.

Every rule below follows from those two sentences.

Three rules, if you remember nothing else

The thinking must be yours. Analysis, evaluation and reflection are what you are actually assessed on. If a tool does that part for you, you have not just broken a rule — you have thrown away the marks.
Your supervisor stays in charge. No AI tool replaces your teacher. Agree your topic with them, take your drafts to them, and follow their instructions over anything a tool tells you.
Declare that you used AI. Hiding it is misconduct even when the use itself was fine. Being open about it costs you nothing.

What this means for each tool

The IB has published guidance covering thirteen situations involving AI in coursework. Two of them matter especially for tools like ours, so we want to be straightforward with you about them.

Tool	Use it like this
Research to Lab	Agree your subject and topic area with your supervisor first. Then use the tool to see example research questions in that area, and take them back to your supervisor to refine. The IB permits exactly this sequence. What is not permitted is going straight to AI for a research question without your teacher's involvement.
IA, EE and TOK Diaries	Use them while you are learning and drafting, to understand what each criterion is asking for and to spot gaps in your own reasoning. Do not treat their comments as your marks, and do not let them replace your supervisor's feedback on your assessed draft — the IB is clear that your teacher is better placed to give that, and that only one set of written feedback is permitted on IB assessment work.
IA / EE / TOK Mentors	Use them to question and stress-test your own ideas, the way you would talk something through with a classmate. The conclusions you reach must be yours.
Misconception Analyzer, Study Coach, ClarifyAI, BridgeSpeak	These support your learning rather than your assessed work, which is the use the IB actively encourages. Use them freely.
UniApply	University applications sit outside IB assessment, but universities have their own rules — and admissions officers read a great many essays. Use it to shape and structure your own story, never to invent achievements.

✅ Do

Use AI to understand a concept, a command term or a criterion
Ask it to explain why an argument is weak — then fix it yourself
Generate example research questions after agreeing a topic with your supervisor
Keep your drafts and notes, so you can show how the work developed
Tell your teacher how you used AI, and reference anything you quote

❌ Don't

Submit AI-written text as your own, even reworded
Use an AI-written reflection — reflection must be genuinely yours
Copy quotes or sources you have not actually read
Let AI feedback stand in for your supervisor's feedback on an assessed draft
Hide your use of AI from your teacher

How to declare your use of AI

The IB asks for transparency rather than perfect citation. In practice:

If you use any AI-generated text, put it in quotation marks, cite it in your school's referencing style, and include the prompt you used and the date.
If AI helped you without any of its words appearing in your work, a short statement at the end describing how you used it is enough.
Keep a transcript of your AI use and give it to your teacher if asked.

A note on why we take this seriously. A tool that writes your IA for you would fail you twice: it would put your diploma at risk, and it would rob you of the thinking that the IA exists to develop. IBHighway is built by a teacher, and it is deliberately designed to ask you questions rather than hand you answers.

Your school's rules come first

Schools may set stricter rules than the IB's, and some subjects or supervisors will not want AI used at all. If your school's policy or your supervisor's instruction conflicts with anything on this page, follow your school. If you are unsure whether a particular use is allowed, ask your supervisor before you use it — not after.

This page is our own guidance for students using IBHighway, written in plain language. It is a summary and not a substitute for official documents: please read your school's academic integrity policy and the IB's own published guidance on AI in student coursework, and follow your supervisor's instructions. IBHighway is an independent study toolkit created by Dr. N. Rathankar Rao and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). Policies change; if you believe anything here is out of date, please tell us and we will correct it.