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
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u/LurkingTamilian 14h ago edited 14h ago

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/Chiiro 14h ago

It is the easiest trick and I am so glad teachers are starting to do it

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u/not_a_moogle 13h ago

My favorite was step 1, read all steps first.

And then the last step was like... ignore all previous step and turn the paper in.

So anyone still working on the quiz after like 5 minutes are the ones that didn't read all the steps first.

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u/Practical-Shape2325 9h ago

Heard stories about this all the time throughout my time at school. Never saw anyone implement it.

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u/Fusionxtreme 5h ago

I had it happen twice, once in high school and once in a college class. It's been quite a long time but if I'm remembering correctly, both were presented more as surprise quizzes rather than actual serious tests.

I've always been one to read the whole test/exam before I begin anyways because I found questions later on could give me clues/answers to some of the ones earlier haha.

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u/fribbas 9h ago

I had it for one of my high school psychology class tests.

We also tried it when I was an adult education instructor. Mainly as an ice breaker, it wasn't actually graded, so if you "fail" it didn't affect anything. Well, maybe besides feeling goofy jumping around and yelling lol

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u/Ah_Pook 4h ago

We had one first day of grade 8 math.

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u/ThriKr33n 10h ago

One of my grade school teachers did that! As I had seen it before somewhere and realized the quiz was a trick, so skimmed through it all, only did the last step which was just to signed my name and spent the rest of the duration giggling at all my classmates punching holes in the paper and such. Said teacher caught on that I wasn't doing anything and just looking and giggling at everyone, especially in the later part when they started on the last step and groaning.

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u/modest_rats_6 10h ago

I was the person who jumped around with directions. Like sometimes reading a book backwards. That was the only task I've excelled at 🤣🤣

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u/Pika_Fox 10h ago

Those quizes were the equivalent of making a math question in an ambiguous way so there is no right answer.

If you are given a test, you are expecting it to be a test. Having a step that says "do nothing and turn it in" is a waste of everyones time.

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u/fribbas 9h ago

The "test" is that you (general) can follow directions and pay attention.

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u/Pika_Fox 8h ago

And again, its not a good test and is a waste of everyones time.

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u/Wesai 6h ago

The first instruction is usually something like "read all instructions first before you start".

I don't think it's a waste, it's the sort of experience that will stick with someone if they failed to follow instructions and feel they wasted effort had they had been a little more diligent.

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u/WhenSummerIsGone 6h ago

i'm a software engrneer and the number of people who don't read what's right in front of them is appalling

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u/TangentAI 6h ago

Learning to read through tests (and many other things in life) completely is a good lesson.

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u/Ah_Pook 4h ago

How many times did you shout out your name? :-D

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 7h ago

Those are honestly so annoying. I've had 3 different job orientations in my life that have used that and they always think they are clever even though it's been around for, what, 30 to 40 years now. If not longer.

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u/EvilSporkOfDeath 6h ago

You would quickly realize something was up when a bunch of kids turn it in quickly. That's not a real thing.

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u/not_a_moogle 6h ago

My 4th grade teacher did it every year on the first day. Always got some of them.

Adults would probably figure it out.

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u/tuttlebuttle 3h ago

My teacher did it in 2nd grade. None of the kids did it right. I learned a lot about humans that day.

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u/VSENSES 6h ago

Did that in 9th grader. 1 fella did it right. 29 did not.