Traditional forms of plagiarism show a marked decline, but thousands of students in UK universities have been caught misusing artificial intelligence (AI) tools to cheat on their assignments, an investigation by The Guardian has found.
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Thousands of students in UK universities have been caught misusing AI tools to cheat on their assignments.
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Experts warn that this is only the tip of the iceberg because cheating students can covertly use tools specifically designed to avoid detection.
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The Guardian found dozens of videos on TikTok advertising AI paraphrasing and essay writing tools to students.
Its survey of academic integrity violations found almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating using AI tools in 2023-24, equivalent to 5.1 for every 1,000 students. That’s up from 1.6 cases per 1,000 in 2022-23.
And it’s going to get worse, apparently, because this year’s figures up to May suggest that the number will increase again to about 7.5 proven cases of AI-powered cheating per 1,000 students.
Still, experts warn that this is only the tip of the iceberg. That’s partly because cheating students can covertly use tools specifically designed to avoid detection.
AI detectors such as GPTZero exist, but they’re not exactly reliable, producing false positives. As we reported last week, AI technology is new, which means the detectors are also new, and we don’t have much research available on their efficacy.
Plus, a survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute in February found that 88% of students used AI for assessments. Last year, researchers at the University of Reading tested their own assessment systems and were able to submit AI-generated work without being detected 94% of the time.
The Guardian found dozens of videos on TikTok advertising AI paraphrasing and essay writing tools to students. They help students bypass common university AI detectors by “humanizing” text generated by ChatGPT.
According to The Guardian, before the widespread availability of generative AI, plagiarism accounted for nearly two-thirds of all academic misconduct in 2019-20.
Cheating intensified during the pandemic when studying moved online and changed almost completely as AI tools became more sophisticated and accessible.
Even though this investigation shows that students are mostly using AI for cheating, there are opinions that the UK should embrace tools like ChatGPT, even in schools.
On the other side of the pond, for example, Ohio State University recently announced that all of its students will be required to train and be fluent in AI.
High-tech firms are happily chugging along. Google offers students a free upgrade of its Gemini tool for 15 months, and college students in the US and Canada can use OpenAI’s chatbots with a discount.
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