Terms of Service

These terms are between you and Silicon Neuron LLC, which operates Critique Studio. By creating an account or using the service you accept them. If you are using it on behalf of a school, you confirm you are allowed to agree on the school’s behalf.

Where a school has signed a separate data privacy agreement with us, that agreement governs student data and overrides anything here that conflicts with it.

You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding contract to hold a teacher account. Critique Studio is offered to schools and teachers, not directly to children.

By using the service you represent to us that:

• the information you give us is accurate, and you keep it current;
• you are authorised to upload the student work you upload, and to have it processed for grading;
• where you act for a school, you are authorised to accept these terms on its behalf;
• your use complies with your school's policies and with the laws that apply to student records where you teach.

• You are responsible for what happens under your account and for keeping your password to yourself.
• Teacher accounts are for the teacher who created them. Student accounts are created at a teacher's or school's direction — students cannot sign themselves up.
• We can suspend an account that is being used to break these terms or the law.

Critique Studio uses AI models to draft grades and written feedback. This is assistance, not a decision:

• An AI grade is a draft. It counts for nothing until a teacher confirms it.
• A teacher can change any part of any grade, and the original is preserved rather than overwritten.
• A curve creates a new version — the grade underneath it survives, so a curve can always be undone.
• If a grade cannot be produced, the job comes back to you rather than recording a result.

You remain the teacher of record. You are responsible for the grades you release and for checking them. AI models make mistakes, including confident ones — the review step exists because that is true.

Because grading can affect a student, we say it plainly: an automated system contributes to grades in this product, a human teacher reviews every one before release, and any student or parent may raise a grade with their teacher in the normal way.

The grading features are built for student work and handled accordingly. The authoring tools are for material you write yourself, so do not paste student work, student names or grades into them.

In short: do not paste student work, student names or grades into the Rubric Builder, Instant Builder, Instant Widgets or an image prompt. Those are for material you wrote yourself.

You keep ownership of everything you upload: rubrics, course material, and your students’ work. We do not claim any right to it beyond what we need to run the service for you — storing it, processing it to produce the grades you asked for, and showing it back to you.

We do not train AI models on your content, and no provider we use may train on it either. See the privacy policy for the full commitments.

Do not use Critique Studio to:

• Upload work you have no right to upload, or student data you are not authorised to hold.
• Attempt to reach another account's data, or to get around the access rules.
• Resell or redistribute the service without a written agreement.
• Automate access in a way that degrades the service for others.
• Upload malicious files.

• Work is metered in credits. One credit grades one page or one image on the standard model; other models cost their stated multiplier, shown before you run anything.
• Credits bought in a pack do not expire. Credits included with a subscription cover that billing period.
• If a job fails through our fault, its credits are returned.
• You can cancel a subscription yourself at any time. Cancelling stops future charges; it does not delete your data — use the deletion controls for that.
• Prices can change, but not for a period you have already paid for.

• Credits are consumed as work is done. Credits already spent are not refundable.
• If a job fails through our fault, its credits are returned automatically — that is the normal remedy.
• Subscriptions renew until you cancel. You can cancel yourself at any time; cancellation stops future charges and takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for.
• We do not give partial refunds for an unused part of a period, except where the law requires it.
• Cancelling does not delete your data. Use the deletion controls, or write to us.
• If you think you were charged in error, contact us before disputing with your bank and we will look at it.

We work to keep the service running but do not promise it will never be unavailable. Grading depends on AI providers we do not control; when one is degraded, jobs may be slower or may fail and refund. Plan deadlines with that in mind.

You can stop using Critique Studio at any time and delete your account from Settings, which removes your data and your students’ files. We may end an account for a serious or repeated breach of these terms, and will tell you why.

On termination we delete student data within 30 days, as set out in the retention table in the privacy policy.

We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that results obtained from it will meet your requirements. No advice or information you obtain from us creates any warranty not stated here.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

This includes, without limitation, any claim arising from a grade, score or item of feedback generated by the service, from a grade you released, from an academic or disciplinary decision made using the service, or from the unavailability of the service at a deadline.

These limits apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Silicon Neuron LLC, its officers, employees and agents from any claim, demand, loss, liability or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:

• content you upload, including student work you were not authorised to hold or share;
• your use of the service, or use by anyone acting under your account;
• a grade or academic decision you released, or a dispute with a student, parent or school about one;
• your breach of these terms, or of any law or third-party right, including privacy and intellectual-property rights.

We will tell you promptly of any claim we seek indemnity for, and you may not settle it in a way that admits fault on our behalf or binds us without our written consent.

The service relies on third parties, including AI providers, hosting and payment processors. We are not responsible for their acts, omissions, availability or changes to their services, and their terms may also apply to their part of the service. The companies we use are listed on the subprocessors page.

If you send us suggestions or ideas about the product, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use them without restriction or obligation to you. This does not apply to your content, your rubrics or your students’ work, which remain yours.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any action arising out of or relating to these terms or the service must be brought exclusively in the state and federal courts located in Polk County, Florida, and you consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.

Where a school or district has signed a separate agreement with us that specifies different governing law or venue, that agreement controls for that school.

• Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, it is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force.
• Entire agreement. These terms, the privacy policy, and any signed school agreement are the whole agreement between us on this subject, and replace earlier discussions.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.
• Survival. Sections on your content, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, governing law and this section survive termination.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control.
• Notices. We may give notice by email to the address on your account or by posting in the service. Notices to us go to privacy@critiquestudio.com.
• Independent parties. These terms do not create a partnership, agency or employment relationship.

We update these terms as the product changes. The date at the top moves when the substance does, and we tell account holders before a material change takes effect.

Questions about these terms, or about anything on this page: privacy@critiquestudio.com.