‘But there is a difference between recognising AI use and proving its use. So I tried an experiment. … I received 122 paper submissions. Of those, the Trojan horse easily identified 33 AI-generated papers. I sent these stats to all the students and gave them the opportunity to admit to using AI before they were locked into failing the class. Another 14 outed themselves. In other words, nearly 39% of the submissions were at least partially written by AI.‘

Article archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20251125225915/https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-trap-to-catch-students-cheating-ai_uk_691f20d1e4b00ed8a94f4c01

The article‘s author, Will Teague, with his cat, Persephone ’Dots‘ Teague
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[–] 109 points 10 months ago* (6 children)

In one of my classes, when ChatGPT was still new, I once handed out homework assignments related to programming. Multiple students handed in code that obviously came from ChatGPT (too clean a style, too general for the simple tasks that they were required to do).

Decided to bring one of the most egregious cases to class to discuss, because several people handed in something similar, so at least someone should be able to explain how the code works, right? Nobody could, so we went through it and made sense of it together. The code was also nonfunctional, so we looked at why it failed, too. I then gave them the talk about how their time in university is likely the only time in their lives when they can fully commit themselves to learning, and where each class is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn something in a way that they will never be able to experience again after they graduate (plus some stuff about fairness) and how they are depriving themselves of these opportunities by using AI in this way.

This seemed to get through, and we then established some ground rules that all students seemed to stick with throughout the rest of the class. I now have an AI policy that explains what kind of AI use I consider acceptable and unacceptable. Doesn't solve the problem completely, but I haven't had any really egregious cases since then. Most students listen once they understand it's really about them and their own "becoming" professional and a more fully developed person.

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    This seems pretty fair and reasonable, although, we should ask why people do this in the first place? Why is there so much pressure to get good or decent grades? If you are just going to college to get a degree and all you want to do is pass, then why go at all?

    College is a broken system right now. If things continue the way they are going, people will just learn how to use AI tools and go find a job. They don't even need to think for themselves, they can just have a computer do it for them.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago

    If you are just going to college to get a degree and all you want to do is pass, then why go at all?

    While I'm about a decade older than the current attendees, "go to college or your life will be terrible" was a persistent and unified message we were forcefed from a very young age. A college degree was billed as a checkpoint to entetr real adult life.

    With that in mind, and another 13 years of compulsory education behind us, why would anybody see college as an opportunity instead of a barrier?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    People aren't going to college to learn anymore, they're going to get a degree, so they can get a job, so they can afford rent and food. An over generalisation sure, but probably not far off the truth

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Great working being a mentor, your impact there was larger than the subject matter at hand.

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