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When a chatbot helps with your Class 11 physics project, people often mix up two questions. The first is legal: who owns the copyright? The second is academic: whose work is it, for marks? The answers differ, and for a student the second usually matters more.
Who owns content made by AI for a school project?
Copyright needs a human author. On 18 March 2025, a US federal appeals court ruled in Thaler v. Perlmutter that the Copyright Act requires every work to be authored by a human being in the first instance (court opinion; summary by Skadden). The US Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal on 2 March 2026 (Supreme Court docket).
The US Copyright Office’s January 2025 report says AI output is protected only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements, and that “the mere provision of prompts” does not count (US Copyright Office). The same report says that using AI to help, or putting AI material inside a larger human-made work, does not stop the human parts from being protected.
Indian law is worded differently. Section 2(d)(vi) of the Copyright Act, 1957 says the author of a computer-generated work is “the person who causes the work to be created” (Copyright Office of India). In a decision reported in August 2026, the Indian Copyright Office refused to accept an AI system as an author, as Bar & Bench reported.
What about the app’s terms? Anthropic’s consumer terms, for example, give the user “all our right, title, and interest (if any) in Outputs”, and they require users to be at least 18 (Anthropic consumer terms). Notice the “(if any)”: a company cannot hand you rights that the law does not create. Check the terms of every tool you use, including its age limit. This is general information, not legal advice.
What do schools and competitions usually ask about AI?
Rules vary by school, board and contest. The rules for the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) show three common ideas (ISEF rules for all projects):
Use is allowed if you give credit: AI “may be used as a project resource but must be cited and given proper acknowledgment.”
Some parts must be yours alone: students may not use generative AI to write the research plan, abstract or poster, or to create citations, because it can invent references.
Your own words: “all materials presented must be in the researcher’s own words.”
If your school has not published an AI rule, ask your teacher before you start, not after you submit. College applications have their own rules too; our guide on what colleges say about AI in application essays covers them.
How do you keep your claim to the work clear?
Sort AI help into three zones. This is our rule of thumb; your school’s rules come first.
Green, AI as tutor: it explains a concept that you then write up yourself, quizzes you, or points out a gap in your reasoning. Usually fine; note it briefly.
Amber, AI as contributor: code, a diagram, a summary of a source, wording suggestions. Often allowed, but only when you cite exactly what it made.
Red, AI as author: the AI writes your question, analysis, conclusions or final text. This is where you lose marks and trust.
Then keep evidence as you go:
An AI log: the date, the tool, what you asked, what you used and what you changed.
Drafts with version history.
A check of every fact and reference the AI gives you against the original source.
The test of saying it aloud: if you cannot explain a line in your own words, it is not yet yours.
If you want help that teaches rather than writes, Fermi’s AI tutor works through problems alongside you and decides whether to explain, ask or show, so the reasoning in your project stays yours. For numericals, the Fermi Problem Library has a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer.
What should an AI-use note say?
Here is a worked example for a Class 11 pendulum project:
And a script for the conversation with your teacher before you begin: “I would like to use AI to explain concepts and check my code. Is that allowed for this project? Should I cite it in the bibliography or in a separate note?”
Parents help most by asking to see the log and drafts. Our guide on helping your teen do a school research project has more ideas, and teachers may like how to check AI use without AI detectors.
Start your AI log today, and your claim to the work will be easy to show.
