TOK and mathematics

AI tools and academic integrity in TOK

Your TOK essay and exhibition must be your own work. Teachers and the IB look for your own voice, your own examples and an argument they have seen develop. Here is how to use help, including AI, without putting your Diploma at risk. Your school's policy comes first.

Usually fine, if your school allows it and you acknowledge it

  • Asking a person or an AI tool to explain an idea (for example, what Gödel proved) and then checking it in a reliable source.
  • Discussing your ideas with classmates and your teacher.
  • Using checklists, scaffolds and question libraries like ours to test your own thinking.

Misconduct

  • Submitting text written by someone else or by an AI tool as your own.
  • Closely paraphrasing a source, a website or an exemplar without citing it.
  • Using facts or quotations generated by AI without checking them (some are invented).
  • Having someone rewrite your commentaries or essay for you.

How to acknowledge a tool

Say which tool, when and for what, in the way your school asks. Keep notes of your planning as you go: they are evidence of your own process.

How our TOK pages are built

  • The question library and object ideas give examples and arguments to think about; they are not answers to any prescribed title or prompt.
  • We never publish the IB's prompts or titles.
  • The essay self-check is a checklist that runs in your browser and saves nothing.
  • We do not offer AI feedback on TOK writing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use ChatGPT or another AI tool for TOK?

Only as your school's policy and the IB's academic integrity rules allow, and any use must be acknowledged. Never submit AI-written text as your own, and check any fact an AI tool gives you.

Can I use examples from these pages in my essay?

Yes, as examples to research further. Find and cite a reliable source for each fact, and make the argument in your own words.

IB Math Revision is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by the IB. These pages are our own writing. They do not reproduce the IB's exhibition prompts or prescribed essay titles: your TOK teacher or IB coordinator has the current ones.