Katharina Buczek
Now that artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are widely accessible – with free models available online and AI-driven tools being integrated into social media apps – everyday people are beginning to use them for habitual tasks.
This includes students who are turning to AI for help with everything from English homework and science labs to exams.
The shift has prompted many universities to begin checking for AI-generated content in student work.
But, in a shocking new study conducted by researchers at the University of Reading in England, it was found that nearly all AI-written work was able to fly under the radar.
For the research, AI-generated exam answers were secretly submitted along with those of actual students in five undergraduate psychology modules. In the end, a whopping 94% of the AI-created submissions went unnoticed by examiners, even though they were completely created by an AI system with no human edits.
Plus, the AI submissions didn’t just go undetected. Rather, they also consistently outperformed real-life students.
The AI-generated answers scored, on average, half a grade higher than real students’ work. And in certain instances, the AI advantage nearly reached a full grade higher.
These findings call into question the future of education in the wake of AI and suggest that universities will have to evolve to safeguard exam integrity and the value of college degrees.
“Many institutions have moved away from traditional exams to make assessment more inclusive. Our research shows it is of international importance to understand how AI will affect the integrity of educational assessments,” explained Peter Scarfe, the study’s co-author.
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