Maybe We Should be a Little Worried About AI + Cheating?

School leaders, education researchers, and others often point to a study conducted by Stanford researchers that suggested the arrival of generative AI in K-12 school has not meaningfully increased the percentage of students who acknowledge some kind of academic dishonesty. Sometimes, school leaders or experts suggest it means there’s “nothing to see here” when it comes to tools like ChatGPT and worries about students bypassing learning. Researcher + Journalist Jesse Dukes joins Justin to dive into the specifics of that study, and compare it with anecdotes from interviews with students and teachers. 

 This episode was produced by Andrew Meriwether and Jesse Dukes. We had additional reporting from Holly McDede  and research help from Natasha Esteves and Manassa Kudumu. Thanks to the Spencer Foundation and the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing Initiative at MIT for funding our ongoing  research into the arrival of generative AI in schools. And thanks to the Kapor Foundation for funding Jesse’s work in California with KALW public radio. Thanks to all of the teachers and administrators who have talked with us. 

 If you want to take our survey, or learn more about our research into Generative AI and K12 education, head over to tsl.mit.edu/ai and if you want to volunteer for the sister study, in California, visit Jesse’s Linktree.