How Can Teachers Deal With The AI Writers Hiding In Their Classrooms
If you are a teacher, the probability is high that some of the essays you are collecting from students were actually written by an algorithm. How do you handle this brave new frontier?
Algorithms that can generate an essay have multiplied in the last decade. Go online to search for help in writing your class assignment and you will immediately find dozens of options from which to choose.
Even the top-tier language generating AI have their quirks and problems, including a sort of linguistic uncanny valley. But for all their many shortcomings, it’s clear that computer algorithms have reached the point of being able to generate a passably mediocre high school essay.
This presents a new challenge in cheating detection. Unlike the old cut-and-paste method of computer-aided cheating, algorithmic writing leaves no online trace; it’s not plagiarism. You can find lots of arguments justifying this brand of cheating (”I know the material; I’m just not very eloquent”). But what is a teacher to do?