Brown University Probes AI Cheating Allegations After Exam Scores Plummet

Students at the prestigious Brown University are under scrutiny for allegedly using artificial intelligence to cheat on exams. In an economics course, students who achieved an average of 96% on a remote midterm exam saw their scores plummet to an average of 46% when the final exam was administered in person.

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The average score was usually between 65-80%, but this exam was actually more difficult than previous ones.

Roberto Serrano, a professor of economics at Brown, submitted evidence to the university's academic ethics committee showing a dramatic drop in student performance. He noted that the midterm, conducted remotely due to a campus shooting, saw most students score highly. However, upon inputting exam questions into ChatGPT, Serrano discovered that the AI's generated answers closely resembled those of his students, though often lacking proper reasoning.

When the final exam was shifted to an in-person format, 18 students withdrew from the course, and 9 did not take the exam. Of the 59 students who completed the final, 37 saw their scores drop by more than 40 points compared to the midterm. Two students who had scored 100% on the midterm received grades of 19% and 16.5% on the final.

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The answers are correct, but the reasoning process is quite flawed and verbose.

Serrano believes the situation highlights the ease with which students can be tempted to use AI, given the near-zero cost of cheating. He praised students who maintained or improved their scores through their own efforts, calling one student who improved from 55% to 59% "respectable" for their integrity. This sentiment was echoed by Glass AI founder Tom Hencke, who suggested hiring the student, a notion Serrano agreed with.

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The cost of cheating has become virtually zero, making it easy for students to be tempted.

Brown University has stated it takes all allegations of academic dishonesty very seriously and will proceed with an investigation. Serrano plans to discontinue remote exams and is considering removing AI-assisted assignments from grade calculations.

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Hire this person immediately.