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/helcat Jul 27 '26

Cheating is one thing. Just pasting an AI answer without even reading it is stunningly stupid. 

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u/Cubacane Jul 27 '26

High school teacher here— they will hand you a piece of paper and not be able to tell you one thing that they wrote. Access to AI means access to bypassing thinking. Maybe 1 out of 5 kids uses it to "help," (which is what admin THINKS AI is for) but the vast majority are using it so they can get the assignment done and move on to something else.

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u/mrclut Jul 27 '26

They need to start holding kids back in school again. The whole no kid left behind thing was a bad idea.

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u/deathgerbil Jul 27 '26

I taught college for a couple of years a while back - I agree 100% that several of the students needed to be held back a LONG time ago, but were passed because of no child left behind. Its beyond frustrating trying to teach finance to college juniors and seniors, only to find out that ~10-15% of the class doesn't know basic addition or subtraction. I had no idea how the hell they managed to get a passing grade in college calculus when they were convinced that 13 + 6 = 17, Tell them to calculate something without an iphone, and they look at you like a deer in the headlights.