Are AI Agents Becoming the Ultimate "Class Skipping Tool"? Some US Students Use AI to Complete Entire Online Courses on Their Behalf
IT Home reported on August 15 that, according to a New York Times report from August 10, as agent models become increasingly popular, some US students are no longer satisfied with using chatbots to look up answers, but are instead handing over entire online courses to AI agents. AI can complete course tasks for students in the background, while the students themselves spend time scrolling on their phones or playing games. AI cheating has evolved from writing assignments to nearly "attending class" on their behalf, exposing the issue that online education is harder to prevent cheating in compared to physical classrooms. Offline courses can verify if students truly master knowledge through exams, oral presentations, and other methods, but online courses find it difficult to adopt the same means. Most activities in online courses are completed on screens, so students can let AI agents log into learning platforms like Canvas and Blackboard to do for them.
IT Home reported on August 15 that, according to a New York Times report from August 10, as agent models become increasingly popular, some US students are no longer satisfied with using chatbots to look up answers, but are instead handing over entire online courses to AI agents. AI can complete course tasks for students in the background, while the students themselves spend time scrolling on their phones or playing games. AI cheating has evolved from writing assignments to nearly "attending class" on their behalf, exposing the issue that online education is harder to prevent cheating in compared to physical classrooms. Offline courses can verify if students truly master knowledge through exams, oral presentations, and other methods, but online courses find it difficult to adopt the same means. Most activities in online courses are completed on screens, so students can let AI agents log into learning platforms like Canvas and Blackboard to do for them.
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