Stellar grades can be easily attained through the use of simple AI software, meaning that a 4.0 GPA has become an obsolete representation of hard-earned intellectual ability.
While there are indubitably still upstanding students, they are not the majority. I polled 193 college students, asking them to estimate the percentage of their peers using AI to cheat. Responses ranged from 25 percent to 100 percent, with an average estimate of 65 percent. I have witnessed the highest-achieving students at Drexel cross-reference multiple AI software programs for every single question on an unproctored exam. College students who use AI shared their reasons for doing so: “Just lazy,” “I’m lowkey dumb,” “More efficient,” and “To make me sound smarter.” Some students noted that their professors encouraged ethical usage of AI when planning, organizing thoughts, or brainstorming. Others felt confident that their professors used ChatGPT themselves when writing the syllabus.
This suspicion that professors are using AI is far from true for Drexel’s Director of Jewish Studies, Henry Israeli. His syllabus prohibits any use of ChatGPT, and he compares using AI to “feeding the beast.” He recalled an instance when university-wide AI policy was clearly and purposefully violated in his class: “I used four different AI checkers. They all said that 100 percent of her paper was written by AI.” She was called into a meeting with the Director of the First Year Writing Program, where Professor Israeli provided clear evidence of plagiarism. This student was permitted to bring a Computer Science professor who claimed that AI checkers are not reliable enough to constitute as evidence. The board ruled that she was not guilty of breaching Drexel’s academic dishonesty policy. As a longtime grader, Israeli swears that the words were written by AI. The student’s words held more weight than the AI checkers and the professor’s testimony. There is evidently not enough accountability for plagiarism in college, meaning students will feel increasingly inclined to use AI.
When I asked other students why they refrain from using AI, they commented: “I want to be knowledgeable,” “I am paying to learn,” and “Teachers always know.” Although teachers are aware, that will not stop certain students if they know that disciplinary action will not follow.
Master’s programs, law schools, and hiring managers often ask applicants to provide their college transcripts. Now, students with impressive academic records may be accepted under the false pretense that they completed their coursework themselves. In reality, hiring managers may be hiring the creators of the student’s exams and essays, which could unfortunately be an enormous soulless computer.
Upstanding students are running an unfair race to graduate summa cum laude and will eventually grow tired of the injustice. Their virtuous character is the barrier between them and cheating with AI. Dishonest counterparts are awarded the same recognition, jobs and program acceptances for doing a minuscule fraction of the required work.
Criticism of the influx of academic dishonesty must include the fact that it has occurred since the dawn of academia. Students in the Ming and Qing dynasties used miniature notebooks to cheat on Chinese civil service exams. Western society’s current situation combines that primitive drive for success with rapidly increasing cheater-friendly technology.
However, AI does not only simplify dishonesty on tests; the software writes entire essays and ‘thinks critically’ for students as well. To prevent overwhelming career preparedness among youth, measures must be taken to combat this digital epidemic.