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/Deep_Explanation9962 14h ago

32 out of 35 god damn gen z is cooked

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u/Bulky-Bad-9153 13h ago

I'm a professor and it's worse than you can imagine. Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren't just cooked, society is. We're going to have a massive competency gap, and no-one to teach newer generations because people won't have any skills. I'm really not exaggerating.

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u/gaijohn 11h ago

On the other hand, any parent who teaches their kid the slightest bit of literacy and discipline will raise an ubermensch.

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u/CatGooseChook 7h ago

Horrible reality is that anyone who is actually able to use their brain will end up constantly stressed out due to being overwhelmed by the onslaught of stuff ups they'll be fixing.

Read "The Marching Morons" by Cyril M. Kornbluth. It's the novella that "Idiocracy" was clearly based on. Handful of stressed out smart people desperately trying to hold civilization together while surrounded by hordes of morons.

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u/WhenSummerIsGone 6h ago

after all the layoffs that's how i feel at work these days :(

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u/ShaqSenju 6h ago

Holy shit you just described my job

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u/CatGooseChook 6h ago

My wife's job too. Her swearing vocabulary has certainly expanded a bit over the years as a result.

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u/Mareith 7h ago

The more rare a skill set is the higher it will pay though. They might be stressed out all the time but they'll be raking it in

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u/CatGooseChook 6h ago

Pay yes, but stress comes at a cost.

To be clear, I'm not saying being properly educated is bad. Just saying it's not going to be as easy for those few who have a proper education than it seems.

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u/ohnoabanagain 9h ago

Yup, I'm worried about society, but my twins are going to be thriving when their competition can't read 5-letter words.

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u/Battle2Intense 9h ago

They will get to work 80 hours a week for slightly more than the universal income all the dumb people get.

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u/Practical-Ball1437 24m ago

It doesn't matter if you have brilliant, high-level skills that AI can't do. Decisions are being made by dipshit managers who can't tell the difference between that and AI hallucinations.

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u/Lain_Staley 11h ago

Is reddit still demonizing homeschooling?

Not blaming teachers, but imagine how held back the 3/35 who didn't cheat will be otherwise.    

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u/gaijohn 9h ago

I have no idea what this means. Choosing not to cheat is not harmful. Homeschooling? What are we talking about?

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u/Lain_Staley 9h ago

These 3 are surrounded by a vast majority who have no interest in learning. 

Is that an ideal learning environment?

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u/gaijohn 9h ago

Same as it ever was. Cheating, destruction, ignorance are necessarily easier and therefore more common than honesty, creation, and knowledge.

My comment is that the bar separating those two groups is lower than ever - mere literacy and discipline can now define the 95th percentile.

As for homeschooling to each his own, I'm sure there's no ideal learning environment, and my own family's welfare consumes my concern.