3 ms·

Lots of people talk about cheating here. That is not the framing I put in my mind. Or rather, if the students are cheating anyone it's themselves. LLMs exist a

Lots of people talk about cheating here. That is not the framing I put in my mind. Or rather, if the students are cheating anyone it's themselves. LLMs exist and are extremely useful in academia. I am currently riding a productivity wave, where I can spit out formalised proofs – not quite at the pace at which I can think of the theorems to prove, but almost. The thing braking my progress is that I have to build all the existing theory too, not just my own new stuff. But for students, who do not yet know anything, it is a danger. From observing my students, it seems to take a certain amount of willpower to do the exercises without letting ChatGPT give them (or "explain them") the answer. And reading an explanation is not the same thing as working it out yourself. You just don't learn doing it, by not doing it! Some students have this will power, some students don't. And it is also situational. Some students have stuff going (work or other factors) which makes it really hard too. Yes, they can of course keep asking ChatGPT later in life, but they will not have the fundamental understanding which is required to even use LLMs for the advanced stuff. ChatGPT cannot explain you advanced concepts if you don't understand the fundamentals! So, to test the students' understanding, we are back to having on-site exams, with the old-school supervision. And more students will fail, because there is now a way to solve exercises without learning.

jmaw 2mo ago
Yes, totally agree that they are primarily directly cheating themselves. But it also indirectly cheats their peers who are being surpassed by the cheating students (at least in school). Similarly for cheating in interviews. Unfortunately the cheating students can cause a race to the bottom where the non-cheating students are pressured to cheat in order to keep up. This pressure to cheat to keep up can become an even bigger issue if teachers try to make tests longer or harder, whether to challenge the cheaters, or if the teachers don't recognize that LLMs are being used.
- logicchains 2mo ago
  >But it also indirectly cheats their peers who are being surpassed by the cheating students (at least in school). Similarly for cheating in interviews. This doesn't happen if they're only assessed based on well-invigilated on-paper exams.

jmaw 2mo ago

Yes, totally agree that they are primarily directly cheating themselves. But it also indirectly cheats their peers who are being surpassed by the cheating students (at least in school). Similarly for cheating in interviews. Unfortunately the cheating students can cause a race to the bottom where the non-cheating students are pressured to cheat in order to keep up. This pressure to cheat to keep up can become an even bigger issue if teachers try to make tests longer or harder, whether to challenge the cheaters, or if the teachers don't recognize that LLMs are being used.

logicchains 2mo ago
>But it also indirectly cheats their peers who are being surpassed by the cheating students (at least in school). Similarly for cheating in interviews. This doesn't happen if they're only assessed based on well-invigilated on-paper exams.