South Africa is one of the countries that is leading the world in artificial intelligence. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports that the country is the number one in Africa and 42nd in the world when it comes to Responsible AI. South Africa also has been ranked in the top 20% of all countries for the adoption of AI.
However, there are a number of challenges that South Africa still needs to deal with as artificial intelligence becomes more popular. One issue is that a growing number of students are using AI to cheat on their assignments. Educators are taking a number of steps to help identify students that are cheating with AI so that they can take the right steps to stop them.
One of the many things that they have had to do is start using AI detection tools. One of the most popular AI detection tools is aidetector.com, because it is affordable and very accurate. They also have to clarify their policies to make sure that their students understand how AI can be used properly.
More SA Students Are Cheating with AI and Schools Are Trying to Stop it
Back in October, another South African news outlet reported that one student was caught using AI to cheat on their matriculation exams. The student took out their smartphone in the middle of the exams and was using an AI tool to give them the answers to the assignments.
Unfortunately, this is not the only instance where AI has been used by students to cheat on their assignments. There was a post last month on the South Africa subreddit on Reddit that was talking about this problem. The top post on this thread was made by Redditor Uberutang, who claims to be a teacher in South Africa. He stated that he has had to provide clarification for his students on when AI is allowed to be used on their work. Students that don’t follow these guidelines will immediately fail the exam or assignment. The second highest rated comment in that thread was made by a female student that said different teachers have different rules on using AI for their work.
Here are some things that schools are doing to make sure that students don’t violate the rules by using AI.
Using AI detection tools to tell when students are cheating with AI
One of the biggest things that many schools have to start doing is use AI detection software to tell when students are using AI on their assignments. They have found that many students are using AI to write their papers and do their homework for them. One study from the United States found that 22 million papers that were tested with an AI detector were shown to have been written with AI.
Of course, there is always the risk that some papers might trigger false positives. In other words, they might be reported to have been written with AI when they weren’t. However, the false positive rate with AI detection software tends to be pretty low. Also, it is probably much less of a concern with students in South Africa than it would be in the United States and other countries that use American English. The reason is that AI tools are typically trained on data sets of papers that are written in American English, so they are less likely to write content that sounds like a South African. Therefore, most South African students are highly unlikely to be falsely accused of using AI on their assignments.
Providing clear rules on using AI responsibly
There is clearly a wide variety of views among teachers on whether AI should be allowed to be used for assignments or not. They will need to make sure that they are clear and transparent about the expectations.
Students need to learn that just because one teacher allows them to use AI does not mean that others will. This is similar to how some teachers will allow students to use their books and notes when taking exams while others will not. They have to take responsibility for understanding the rules and following them.
Schools Will Need to Be Diligent About Stopping Students from Cheating with AI
A growing number of people have been using AI to cheat on their assignments. This issue was first witnessed in the United States but has spread to South Africa and many other countries. Since South Africa is one of the leaders in the adoption of AI technology, it will continue to be an issue here.
Schools are going to need to take serious steps to make sure students are not cheating with AI. They will need to make sure that they use the right AI detection tools and have clear guidelines on the use of AI in the student code of conduct. This won’t entirely stop students from cheating with AI, but it can at least reduce it.