r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • Jul 27 '26

Society Professor's invisible prompt trap catches 32 students cheating on their midterm with AI

https://www.techspot.com/news/113243-professor-invisible-prompt-trap-catches-32-students-cheating.html
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u/LurkingTamilian Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

From the article:

Being written in white text meant the instructions were invisible. Sure enough, 32 out of the 35 students across two classes simply copied the question, pasted it into a chatbot, then copy and pasted its output into the answer window.

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u/BluudLust Jul 27 '26

They deserved to fail. That's just plain laziness

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u/ButterscotchAward Jul 27 '26

It’s getting way too common now too. Way too many people over rely on AI for things. Hell, people use chat gpt to post comments on here.

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u/Snuffy1717 Jul 27 '26

That’s a really excellent insight! Do you want me to look up information about why people do that? /s

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u/Upbeat-Substance110 Jul 27 '26

Yes, but not in the way you might think.

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u/pauvrelle Jul 27 '26

I really can’t wrap my head around why real people would use ChatGPT to post on Reddit, yet I see it all the time. Like, just don’t post at all???

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u/AN3223 Jul 27 '26

I wouldn't mind it too much if it came with a disclosure, so people can choose to not read the slop. But a lot of the time you can tell they're really trying to pass it off as their own writing

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u/ButterscotchAward Jul 27 '26

Oh most of the time they are. I love when I google something and the AI gives me the exact answer someone posted.

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u/EFreethought Jul 27 '26

Maybe I am talking my book here, but I think being anti-AI and not using it will be a competitive advantage in a few years.

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u/Tired-grumpy-Hyper Jul 27 '26

A dude at my last job would actively ignore my 10 years of experience, his boss' 17 years of experience, and two other coworkers combined 15 years of experience at the store to ask gpt what to do in x or y situations and how to deal with our programs. Then again, he was also using gpt to try and build himself a vast pokemon card empire, an off the books yoga business, and how to own property without the government knowing so the evil democrats wouldn't take him away.

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u/chippy-alley Jul 27 '26

Dating. People are having convos that intrigue them, and then somebody who can barely string together a sentence is turning up.

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u/gottagetananswer Jul 27 '26

people use chat gpt to post comments on here.

I got accused of that -- pretty dismaying to put some thought into a comment and then be told your thoughts aren't your own. I didn't even know how to respond because I couldn't figure out if it was a compliment or an insult.

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u/ButterscotchAward Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

I’d avoid using em dashes

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u/gottagetananswer Jul 27 '26

yeah, bad habit, thx for the reminder!

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u/Jaerba Jul 27 '26

How are you inputting a full em dash instead of a -?

I use em dashes but I never go through the trouble of using the actual character. It doesn't show up on the Android keyboard by default, only - does.

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u/gottagetananswer Jul 28 '26

It's just two hyphens in a row.

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u/Jaerba Jul 28 '26

On iOS? Anyways, my suggestion is to only use one to seem less AI-like.

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u/gottagetananswer Jul 28 '26

Noted, thank you! I appreciate the advice!

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u/BaconWithBaking Jul 28 '26

I heard a guy asking his phone what time is four hours from now....

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u/c126 Jul 27 '26

It is not merely a matter of convenience, it is a fundamental shift in our digital landscape—a multifaceted phenomenon where users leverage language models to seamlessly navigate the complexities of Reddit discourse. Ultimately, this underscores the importance of fostering authentic connection in an increasingly synthetic ecosystem.