By Annie McNamee, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Three years ago, generative Artificial Intelligence was a novelty, and its best use was making uncanny images of monkeys in hats. Now, it's well on its way to taking over the world, and, by extension, university campuses.
Still in its infancy, the hard data on how much students use AI and how it's impacting their education is limited. However, a freedom of information request submitted by the online publication The Student Eye has revealed that there has been a 7,414% increase in students being penalised for their misuse of AI in assessments since 2021, with 526 being issued in the 2023/24 academic year.
This statistic alone portrays a slightly sensationalised version of events. There are obvious reasons as to why, as AI becomes more powerful and more ubiquitous, more students are using it, and misusing it. However, given that these numbers are from last year, it seems likely that this year that number will have risen again.
The university considers 'unauthorised use of artificial intelligence to complete a piece of work in a manner that circumvents the design of an assessment' to be cheating. It told The Student Eye that it does not rely solely on AI detection software to decide whether or not a student accused of cheating is guilty, and that such programmes simply 'provide[s] additional evidence to aid a discussion with the student as part of a possible plagiarism investigation'.
Some are completely against its use in an academic setting, whilst others argue that used correctly, it can be a powerful tool for furthering your learning, automating the necessary, if tedious elements of studying – such as referencing – and leaving you with more time to do the actual thinking. The university's official stance is somewhere in the middle. A statement on the University of Bristol's website states that: 'Generative AI cannot replace the hard work of getting to grips with threshold concepts in a discipline. At the same time, it can offer support to students, co-piloting with them in novel ways, sense-checking, summarising, and guiding students with structuring ideas.
'We need to define its use, rather than letting it define how we and our students use it.'
In terms of assessments, the 'default' position is that 'minimal' use, such as 'using spell and grammar checkers to help identify mistakes but not rewrite chunks of text' is acceptable. Some schools adopt a zero tolerance policy, while others have begun to bake the use of AI into their exams. In order for a penalty to be issued, a student would have had to use AI in a manner that is specifically prohibited by their school.
Have you ever used AI to help you in an exam?
