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Professor catches over 30 students using AI with a hidden word trick
🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

Professor catches over 30 students using AI with a hidden word trick

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • A history professor at Alcorn State University used a hidden word in exam instructions to detect AI-generated essays.
  • Students who used AI to write their essays failed to notice the invisible word 'Madagascar,' which was integrated into their AI-generated responses in nonsensical ways.
  • Over 30 students across two classes were caught using AI, with the professor noting a lack of effort in reviewing their submissions.

A history professor has devised a clever method to catch students submitting AI-generated essays, leading to over 30 students failing a portion of their exams. Jason Gibson, a professor at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, embedded the word 'Madagascar' in white font, invisible against the document's background, within the instructions for an essay on the Industrial Revolution and the digital age.

Madagascar floats sideways through the afternoon.

— AI-generated textAn example of a nonsensical phrase produced by an AI chatbot when attempting to integrate an invisible word hidden in the exam instructions.

Gibson explained in a TikTok video that when students copied and pasted text into AI chatbots, the systems attempted to incorporate the hidden word. This resulted in illogical phrases like 'Madagascar floats sideways through the afternoon' appearing in their essays. The professor observed that the students evidently did not review their work before submission, as the AI-generated text was grammatically polished but lacked genuine intellectual effort.

32 of my 35 students between two classes failed a portion of their midterm exam because they all used AI to generate their entire response.

— Jason GibsonProfessor Gibson detailed the extent of AI usage he detected in his history classes.

Gibson caught the same error in two different classes, with 32 out of 35 students in total submitting AI-generated responses that included the nonsensical reference. He emphasized that his intention was not to penalize students but to encourage them to engage more critically with their work. "If you're going to use AI to generate the entire response, at least read it back or try to put it in your own words," Gibson advised.

First and foremost, Madagascar has nothing to do with the Industrial Revolution.

— Jason GibsonProfessor Gibson pointed out the absurdity of the AI's inclusion of the word 'Madagascar' in an essay about the Industrial Revolution.

The professor's tactic went viral on TikTok, sparking widespread discussion about the use of AI in education. While some praised his ingenuity, others questioned the fairness of his method. The university has not yet issued a formal statement, but the incident highlights the ongoing challenges educators face in ensuring academic integrity in the age of artificial intelligence.

I get no satisfaction from seeing students fail; it's not my intention for them to fail.

— Jason GibsonProfessor Gibson clarified his motives behind the AI detection method.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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