College prof hides prompt to catch AI cheaters, finds human nature is pretty much as we thought
Busted! A college professor who was tired of reading AI responses to essay questions found a unique way to determine if his students were cheating. Sadly but not surprisingly, 32 of the 35 students who took the test fell right into his trap. Jason Gibson, who teaches history and African American studies at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, came up with a rather basic way to trick his…
A college professor, Jason Gibson, devised a clever method to detect AI usage among his students in an essay test about the industrial revolution. By embedding the word "Madagascar" in white text within the prompt, Gibson anticipated AI tools would recognize and copy the instruction, while human students would overlook it. Of the 35 students who took the test, 32 inadvertently fell into his trap, submitting AI-generated responses laden with bizarre usage of the word "Madagascar."
Gibson's findings suggest that not only are students relying on AI to answer questions, but they're also not carefully reviewing the output before submitting it. This lack of attention aligns with concerns about AI's impact on critical thinking skills in academic settings. MIT research revealed that AI-assisted students exhibited significantly reduced brain activity during essay writing.
Multiple institutions, including Brown University, have expressed worries about AI's detrimental effects on learning outcomes, with some students scoring anomalously high while demonstrating diminished cognitive abilities. Gibson, while not enjoying the trickery, aimed to instill awareness about academic integrity in his students.
He is unlikely to repeat the experiment, stating that AI remains an evolving aspect of academia without a clear solution to maintain integrity.
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