FORT LAUDERDALE - An expelled Black student claiming racist AI called her a cheater must pursue some of her lawsuit in arbitration, while the rest of her case has been thrown out.
Florida federal judge David Leibowitz made that decision July 22 in the 2023 lawsuit brought by Christelle Mazile, who was kicked out of Larkin University after technology from ExamSoft found she was cheating while taking her finals remotely during the COVID pandemic.
She sued ExamSoft and Larkin, noting previous concerns from U.S. senators like Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. They and four other Democrats wrote the company in December 2020 after media reports claimed minorities and students with disabilities using ExamSoft were wrongly accused of cheating.
The letter referenced claims facial recognition software recorded disabilities like tics or muscle reflexes as suspicious, while students of color and others wearing religious headscarves reported issues with the software's inability to recognize their facial features.
ExamSoft quickly responded, and the issue appears to have gone no further on Capitol Hill.
In Leibowitz's courtroom, Mazile claimed she was pursuing a doctorate degree in Larkin's pharmaceutical program. She claims she has anxiety and ADHD.
She had taken her final exams in person but did not pass. In May 2020, she was trying again - this time online, as COVID had shut down in-person education.
Those remote exams were filmed by ExamSoft and reviewed by its artificial intelligence to find irregular behavior that could be classified as heating. Mazile was flagged and expelled and, according to her, not allowed to present an argument ExamSoft had discriminated against her.
She made seven claims against the defendants, three of which will go to arbitration thanks to a clickwrap agreement in ExamSoft's terms.
"The plaintiff had every opportunity to understand the clear terms of the arbitration clause," Leibowitz wrote. "The clause, as Plaintiff admits, was 'in the same font, text, color and size as the rest of the agreement' and was clearly titled 'GOVERNING LAW AND ARBITRATION.'
"Plaintiff had a duty to read the contract, which was less than four pages, before she agreed to it, and because the arbitration clause was plainly available for her to read, and not hidden in the contract, this Court does not find that it is procedurally unconscionable."
The ruling puts three claims against ExamSoft - intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and breach of warranty - in arbitration while dismissing all claims against Larkin.
She charged the university with discrimination and failure to accommodate under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Leibowitz found Mazile failed to ever request an accommodation, though he dismissed the claims without prejudice. That allows her to file an amended complaint to include that request, if she ever made one.