As the accessibility of AI-powered chatbots rises, so does the amount of students who use it to cheat. The launch of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots has become a growing concern for many schools and teachers, as students turn in AI-generated work as their own.
How much do we need to worry about? As many educators start to use AI-detecting tools on digital assignments, parents and experts alike have become increasingly concerned about AI-fueled cheating. After all, generative AI is the cheapest, easiest way to cheat ever invented.
In April, Turnitin revealed the data of the nearly 200 million assignments, finding that the small use of AI was found in one out of ten assignments, and three out of a hundred assignments were found to be mostly AI. This data appears strikingly similar to last year’s results, remaining steady since the tool was first introduced.
In a 2023 study from Stanford University, researchers surveyed forty different high schools to get anonymous responses about cheating. During the years prior to ChatGPT’s existence, sixty to seventy percent of students admitted to cheating at least once. These results stayed the same in the 2023 study, even after the introduction of ChatGPT.
What are schools and universities doing to combat this, however? Scott Laman, principal of Lakota West High School, believes that AI is soon going to be harnessed into a tool for helping students.
“I think it’s one of those things that we gotta look at trying to use it in a positive way,” said the high school principal.
Laman is actively looking for ways for AI to be used for school improvement, rather than a tool for cheating. He wants to get rid of the negative stigma surrounding artificial intelligence, and try to figure out how it can be used in the classroom.
“This is just the new wave that we’ve got to be able to adapt to, figure out a way to make it useful, and maybe further our educational practices.”
