Genius or lazy? Students use ChatGPT in their exams

Stanford students and faculty alike are grappling with the rise of ChatGPT, the smartest and most recognized chatbot on the Internet today. However, it seems that students are adapting best to this technology, or at least that’s what a survey by The Stanford Daily says.

Something is about to change within the educational landscape and teachers are already shaking their heads (how hard it is going to be to catch someone cheating). But as is often the case, young people are always several steps ahead. The Daily’s survey shows a very interesting result: many students have already used ChatGPT for their final exams.

Whether the chatbot will raise a review of the Honor Code (the University’s rules regarding academic integrity) remains to be seen. However, a spokesperson for the center confirmed that the Judicial Affairs Board is aware of the entire matter and that it is also reviewing these tools carefully.

Spokesperson Dee Mostofi wrote that “students are expected to complete coursework without unallowed aids […] which includes AI tools like ChatGPT.” It’s a fact: the rise of artificial intelligence has caught many off guard, and educators are more scared than ever.

Still, the debate is served. While professors and others who are more old-fashioned think that using ChatGPT is a crime, others simply see it as another tool, intended for generating ideas. Anyway, the question remains: is ChatGPT a help or a more sophisticated way of cheating?

For Mostofi, academic assignments will remain unchanged. This means that students will be “supported to develop linked thinking and improve their writing skills”. Or what amounts to the same thing: they don’t plan to do anything about it. In other places, such as Australia, they have at least decided to “combat” ChatGPT with the return of paper and pencil.

To add more fuel to the matter, OpenAI is working on the paid version of ChatGPT, the option “professional”. However, professors will have nothing to fear here: spending money is not in the plans of a university student.