IBL News | New York
AI can now ace most tests, so its use among students has become nearly universal. It’s the Homework Apocalypse.
Of the students using AI (eight months ago, 82% of undergraduates and 72% of K12), 56% use it to help with writing assignments, and 45% to complete other types of schoolwork.
In an analysis of AI assistance on homework, Prof. Ethan Mollick at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, says that students don’t always see AI help as cheating (they get answers to some tricky problem or a challenging part of an essay), but many teachers do.
• “To be clear, AI is not the root cause of cheating. Cheating happens because schoolwork is hard and high stakes. After all, learning is not always fun, and forms of extrinsic motivation, like grades, are often required to get people to learn,” he says.
• “No specialized AI detectors can detect AI writing with high accuracy, and even watermarks won’t help much. Even so, there are plenty of ways to disguise “AI writing” styles through simple prompting. Well-prompted AI writing is judged more human than human writing by readers.”
• “There are still options that preserve old assignments. Teachers can return to in-class writing, asking students to demonstrate their skills in person, or other techniques that might mitigate AI cheating through close monitoring and shifting how they approach teaching and assessment.”
• “Students are not using AI just to do their homework. They are getting aid in understanding complex topics, brainstorming ideas, refreshing their knowledge, creating new forms of creative work, getting feedback, getting advice, and so much more.”
• “Almost three-quarters of teachers are already using AI for work, so we need to center teachers on using AI rather than just leaving AI to students.”
• “Integrating AI requires fundamentally reimagining how we teach, learn, and assess knowledge. Our focus must evolve as AI becomes integral to the educational landscape. The goal isn’t to outsmart AI or pretend it doesn’t exist but to harness its potential to enhance education while mitigating the downside. The question is not whether AI will change education but how we will shape that change to create a more effective, equitable, and engaging learning environment for all.”
