AI vs Cheating: How Colleges are Policing ChatGPT Usage by Students
As a chief editor at Mindburst.ai, I've seen my fair share of creative ways that students try to bypass school policies. One of the latest trends is the use of ChatGPT, an AI language model that can generate coherent responses to text prompts. While this technology has many practical applications, it also poses a challenge for colleges that want to prevent cheating and ensure academic integrity. That's why many schools are now scrambling to police ChatGPT usage by students, and some are even turning to AI to do so.
Here are some of the ways colleges are tackling this issue:
1. Creating their own AI models
Some colleges are developing their own AI models to detect ChatGPT usage by students. These models are trained on a dataset of student writing samples, and they learn to recognize patterns that are indicative of ChatGPT-generated responses. Once a student submits an essay or assignment, the AI model analyzes the text and assigns a score based on the likelihood that it was written with the help of ChatGPT. If the score is high, the student may be flagged for further investigation.
2. Using plagiarism detection tools
Many colleges already use plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin to identify copied or unoriginal content. These tools can also be used to detect ChatGPT usage, as the AI-generated responses will often contain phrases or sentences that match those found on the internet. By running student submissions through these tools, colleges can quickly identify potential cases of academic dishonesty.
3. Monitoring internet activity
Some colleges are taking a more proactive approach by monitoring students' internet activity during exams or other assignments. By using software that tracks keystrokes and mouse movements, colleges can determine whether a student is using ChatGPT or other unauthorized resources. While this approach may raise privacy concerns, it can be an effective way to deter cheating and ensure fairness.
Trivia: Did you know that the first AI language model was developed in the 1950s? It was called the Georgetown-IBM experiment, and it used a machine translation system to convert Russian sentences into English.
Overall, the use of ChatGPT by students presents a complex challenge for colleges. While AI can be a useful tool for detecting cheating, it can also create new opportunities for academic dishonesty. As colleges continue to grapple with this issue, it will be interesting to see how they balance the need for academic integrity with the desire to embrace new technologies.
