Study shows students using AI in exams earn higher grades – and can get away with it

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Exams answered using AI can not only evade detection but also earn higher grades than those submitted by students, a real-world test has shown. Peter Scarfe, an associate professor at Reading’s School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences said the findings should serve as a “wake-up call” for educational institutions as AI tools such as ChatGPT become more advanced and widespread. “There has been quite a lot of talk about the use of so-called AI detectors, which are also another form of AI but is limited.” For the study, published in the journal Plos One, Prof Scarfe and his team generated answers to exam questions using GPT-4 and submitted these on behalf of 33 fake students. “We won’t necessarily go back fully to hand-written exams, but the global education sector will need to evolve in the face of AI.” Study co-author Professor Etienne Roesch, of Reading’s School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, added: “As a sector, we need to agree how we expect students to use and acknowledge the role of AI in their work.