UK Universities Crack Down On ChatGPT-Assisted Cheating, Nearly 400 Students Investigated

An inquiry into educational institutions discovered that many UK students were utilising ChatGPT and other AI technologies to cheat on exams.

According to The Metro, figures obtained by the student newspaper The Tab show that 377 UK university students have faced a probe for cheating on their coursework.

Of those, at least 146 have so far been found 'guilty, with investigations still ongoing at dozens of universities.

The data, released under the Freedom of Information Act, also shows that up to 40 percent of all UK universities had experienced the issue.

The news portal added that although the numbers are rising, other colleges claim that they may actually be "significantly higher" because they have only just begun investigating the problem.

The investigations come after a 'boom' in AI technology that began at the beginning of 2023 and made AI chat bot technology readily available to the general public-often for no cost.

In November of last year, ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, was released. Almost any type of writing can be generated by the ChatGPT app at the user's request, including essays, poems, and computer code.

Dr Richard Harvey, a professor of computer science at the University of East Anglia (UEA), says ChatGPT at present is "almost configured for cheating".

The lecturer, who has removed an essay from a unit he is teaching next year over fears students could use the chatbot, says he has become very adept at identifying cheaters.

He said: "What I see is almost perfect grammar, and a stylistic construction that looks precisely like a 15-year-old schoolkid."