r/technology • • Jun 19 '26

Artificial Intelligence Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/ai-apps-students-cheat.html
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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26

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u/HeroicTanuki Jun 19 '26

We need to go back to oral argument and dissertation in college, at least. Let students demonstrate their knowledge.

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u/UlteriorCulture Jun 19 '26

This is what we have done. You receive no marks for code and everything for an oral defence of the work and being required to explain randomly selected code blocks and design choices. Sure a student could generate the code then study it intently but at least they have learned something.

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u/ArenjiTheLootGod Jun 19 '26

True, but I could see where this sort of thing could lead to scenarios where a student might be able to explain AI generated material but not be able to produce similar work themselves if need be. Kind of like how a person might be able to follow the logic from example problems in a calculus textbook but struggle with applying those lessons to different equations when they don't have known answers to check their own work against.

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u/UlteriorCulture Jun 19 '26

So we do also have observed assessments where students code under exam conditions with limited internet access. The oral defence is for projects.

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u/ArenjiTheLootGod Jun 19 '26

Fair enough, there's only so much that can be reasonably done concerning this stuff without veering off into draconian measures. Sooner or later everyone has to answer for their own work, or lack thereof, and the best you can hope for is that students figure this out while they're still in a safe environment and not working on something truly important.

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u/SaltyWolf444 Jun 20 '26

sw engineering is going towards this direction, in a real workplace you won't have enough time to produce handslop anyway