Experts sound alarm over AI programs and school cheating

Anti-cheating software used in NSW schools cannot detect if students have used artificial intelligence programs to write their assignments for them, creating a major blind spot for educators and bureaucrats.

A major anti-plagiarism service used by hundreds of NSW schools says it cannot detect AI-generated writing handed in by students, as education leaders warn the rise in use of these programs is already a major concern.

ChatGPT is a new web browser computer program released last November which produces a range of writing tasks on request, including poetry and essays, for free.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the NSW Department of Education falsely believed anti-plagiarism programs like Turnitin – and Google – could quickly detect the work of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT.

Turnitin’s Asia-Pacific vice president James Thorley said his company is working on a feature to detect AI, but admitted the software currently cannot distinguish between human and non-human writing.

“We have not released a tool that specifically says an AI tool was used to create a piece of work,” Mr Thorley said.

Cheeky NSW teens are using artifical intelligence to do their assignments for them— and the state’s anti-plagiarism tools can’t detect the phony work.

A western Sydney high school principal, not authorised to speak on the record, warned AI technology was already posing “significant challenges” in many schools, and will be a “massive quandary” in the school year ahead.

Blocking the websites would do nothing to prevent students using AI at home, he said, urging the Department of Education to issue guidelines and professional learning for teachers.

Students have been using tools like ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence robot. Picture: Thalía Juárez

“A lot of assessment tasks are take-home tasks. Kids could take home the questions … and it will produce something … at the push of a button,” he said.

“HSC assessment tasks would nearly need to be all completed in class under teacher supervision, because you can’t then trust that … everyone’s on a level playing field.”

A NSW Department of Education spokesman said it “takes cheating and malpractice in academic work and exams very seriously, with robust measures in place to deal with this.”

“We are reviewing student access to specific AI software, including ChatGPT, when using a Department device or our secured network, recognising that learning about such technologies is an important part of the NSW curriculum.”

ChatGPT generated a passable Year 12 English essay when provided a topic question created by experts and a few additional parameters.

A blind test revealed a Year 12 English essay generated by ChatGPT could earn a pass mark as high as 59 per cent.

The Daily Telegraph produced the AI-written essay using a question created by Year 3 to 12 tutoring college Matrix Education. When Matrix English teacher Jacques Nieuwoudt received the essay, he said it would warrant a Band 2 in the HSC but with some work the ‘student’ author could achieve a much higher mark.

“The AI has done a fantastic (albeit unsettling) job of composing a sophisticated voice, as well as understanding the essay question and reflecting on the core themes of both texts,” he said.

“Initially, I interpreted the essay as having been authored by an intelligent individual with a strong literary voice and great potential.”

Mr Thorley acknowledged ChatGPT was potentially “disruptive” to academic integrity in high school education, at least in the short term.

“[ChatGPT] is very suitable for shorter form [writing] and I think schools will have to adapt to that.”

24-year-old Australian undergraduate Kieran Lindsay, the creator of AcademicID - a homegrown alternative to ChatGPT, suggested introducing academic citations to high school students could help solve the cheating dilemma.

Mr Lindsay’s artificially intelligent virtual assistant Minerva “can do almost exactly what ChatGPT and others do” but its responses are matched with verifiable academic references, he said.

Australian AI Minerva produces answers to a student or researcher's question, cites its sources and links out to the full work.

ChatGPT will provide citations if asked - but users would need to seek out the source themselves.

“Relying on a chatbot (to complete assessment tasks) is a game of Russian roulette. There’s a very high risk of submitting incorrect information.

“These platforms will create a shift in high schools where (students) will have to provide references for the knowledge they’re spitting out, otherwise teachers will just have to assume it came from AI.”

Australia’s Group of Eight universities said its members were taking a range of steps to prevent cheating with AI including “greater use of pen and paper exams”.

“Assessment redesign is critical, and this work is ongoing for our universities as we seek to ‘get ahead’ of AI developments,” Go8 deputy chief Matthew Brown said.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is working on putting in an unnoticeable secret signal in its words that can be later used to confirm its AI origin, but some experts have warned workarounds and exploits can be developed.

ANSWER: Response B was written by ChatGPT, an AI program. Matrix English teacher Jacques Nieuwoudt gives it a mark in the Band 2 range aka 50-59 per cent, which is still a pass. Response A was the human-written essay. Mr Nieuwoudt gives it a Band 6, which is 90 to 100 per cent.

Originally published as Experts sound alarm over AI programs and school cheating