ChatGPT: Cheats 3.0 | NDR.de

by Jan Weidmann

Maybe cheating at school has always been around: It used to be the famous cheat sheet hidden in the sleeve. Smartphones have been around for a few years, and they can be secretly Googled down the toilet. But now everything has a new quality: with artificial intelligence and programs like ChatGPT, which can provide complete answers to relevant tasks on your cell phone. In the Abitur exams in Hamburg, such cheating seems to have now been exposed. And they started discussing.

Some exam questions – well answered – completely failed others. An indication that artificial intelligence has helped in the meantime?
The Hamburg school authorities spoke of several suspected cases of this kind. In at least one case, according to information from NDR 90.3, a student was caught using his smartphone during an exam. “I suppose these are just isolated cases,” says Christian Geifert of the “Gymnasium School Management Association” in the Hamburg Journal. But not everyone sees it that way.

Individual cases or an indicator of social development?

ChatGPT has been available for free since November. The fact that they were used for the first Abitur exams “is obvious from my point of view and was to be expected,” says Doris Wessels. She is Professor of Business Informatics at Keele University of Applied Sciences and researches artificial intelligence in the education sector. “I am therefore more amazed that this student in Hamburg is classified as an isolated case or as a special case. Presumably – and this is scary – it happened all over Germany.” How do you deal with this development? One possibility: stricter controls, even during exams. Tess Rabe, Senator for Hamburg: “As long as we can’t prove it, it won’t really be possible to go to trial. We have to catch the students in the act. Then it works.”

Using artificial intelligence against artificial intelligence?

Another possibility: checking texts when they’re corrected — and even using digital assistants: “These are the so-called detectors, which are hotly debated over and over again. These detectors, and this is the current situation, don’t work reliably,” warns Doris Wessels, an AI expert, And she, of course, is not at all inflexible with regard to the law of examinations – and goes further: “In my view, this leads in the wrong direction, because it is not about us continuing deception, deception indicates, about wanting to prove deception. It’s about our use of technology that we think is useful. It is a technique that can be used wonderfully by learners. Because i can use to make my singles build an educational tutor. And with teachers in a similar way, because of course they can also have great designs created for their lessons. “

Assistance through technology is a matter of perspective

When used properly, both sides can benefit from artificial intelligence. But what might the exam look like in the end? Beyond pure cognitive inquiries or even more examinations in the form of debates – this is what the Student Council, Hamburg School Envoy Ties Rabe and almost the entire school world are discussing in a working group of the Conference of Education Ministers.

Change processes in the education system with reference to greater development

Expert Doris Wessels probably wouldn’t agree. She talks about exponential change — just in the last few months — but she’s also optimistic that something will happen soon: “The pressure for change is constantly growing, and even a slow system like the education system brings about what I think is a process of positive change in many areas.”

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is an important subject in Hamburg schools. The school authorities still have to work out how to handle it properly, says Frauke Reinig. more

The Ministry of Education says that fraud in the field of artificial intelligence does not cause any particular problems. Spickers has always been around. more