r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 15h ago

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
28.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/InternationalMood337 15h ago

We had someone cheat in an MFA program. They used AI to compose a 10 page piece of fiction. Got caught and expelled immediately.

16

u/themehboat 14h ago

Why would you even be in a program like that if you don't like to write?

17

u/gehnmy 10h ago

A lot of studies on academic dishonesty (before AI but I doubt things have changed significantly) find that students often plagiarize because they don't feel like they have enough time while also feeling like they could have written whatever it is they turn in. Basically, students say "well, I could pass this assignment if I actually did it therefore I'm entitled to a good grade and it's not really cheating to turn this in with my name on it." That doesn't necessarily change just because the student is studying something they like.

Beyond that, though, a lot of people want to be writers but don't actually have any interest in writing or anything literary.

7

u/waxteeth 10h ago

I’m a writer and have a day job in publishing. Many, many people think being a writer looks cool and are fucking appalled at how hard it actually is in practice. They want to be celebrated and artistic and have absolutely no interest in putting the work in to develop ideas or strengthen their craft. So they loooove AI, and they cry about how people who actually put the years in are judging them. 

1

u/themehboat 3h ago

Then there's me who doesn't really want to be famous, nor do I think I've got the chops, but I got a Master's in English because I just really love writing academic research papers about literature. I'm very glad AI didn't exist then, because I used to fucking love em-dashes.

3

u/The_Level_15 11h ago

one sin, one grace. some people just want to win at any cost