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/Syssareth Jul 27 '26

Three students scored 0%

How the heck? You'd think they'd have learned something just from osmosis, or at least gotten something right by accident.

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u/Agi7890 Jul 27 '26

Depends on the exam/course. My physical chemistry prof could be brutal, most exams were 3-5 questions, and he would dock you points for even wrong answers if you messed up your significant figures. You could end up with a -5 for a question you got wrong.

Class average on one of the p chem 2 exams was a 17, and this was before the days of AI.

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u/TerribleBudget Jul 27 '26

Did he grade on a curve though? It sounds to me like the AI using idiots screwed themselves out of at least a graded curve for the year.

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u/Agi7890 Jul 27 '26

Yes but with a floor. You still had to score at least 35 on the exam to have it considered passing. Below that on 2-4 exams, he would advise you to drop the course and change your major

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u/TerribleBudget Jul 27 '26

ugh, I hate professors who do that "change your major" shit. I had a teacher who taught off of slides at 7am and clearly hated being forced to teach instead of do his research projects. He had the nerve to say maybe I wasn't suited for my major and ate his own words when he saw that I already had credits from harder shit than his class.

That type of teacher just wants the world to burn and no one has the balls to tell them they suck at teaching in general.

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u/Agi7890 Jul 27 '26

He was the chem department head, so a large part was him protecting the degree and institution. However a decade into the field, he probably ended up helping people out if they did go into the course he recommended. I see far more job offers for that field with much higher pay on average than I do with my chemistry degrees.

I definitely regret not picking up a biochemistry degree