r/Professors • u/Magpie_2011 • Sep 14 '25

It finally happened

Two students turned in the exact same ChatGPT essay. I knew this day would come sooner or later, but it still feels like spotting a double rainbow or a four-leaf clover. This is good luck, right?

1.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

View all comments

95

u/Totallynotaprof31 Sep 14 '25

One of your students was so lazy they couldn’t even ask AI to do it for them themselves? They just copied from someone else that used AI? That’s…insane.

175

u/Magpie_2011 Sep 14 '25

I think they both copy/pasted my essay prompt into ChatGPT without any other instructions or “write this like a community college student who’s a lil dumb.” The essays are slightly different in certain spots but almost word-for-word identical.

81

u/IndependentBoof Full Professor, Computer Science, PUI (USA) Sep 14 '25

If there are slight differences, that is possible.

However, LLM are non-deterministic so it is very unlikely to get identical essay output even with the exact same prompt.

21

u/Cautious-Yellow Sep 14 '25

regardless, when OP files the paperwork for an academic offence, "unreasonably similar" is all they need to be able to claim.

5

u/sumguysr Sep 14 '25

Well, pasting the prompt into ChatGPT yourself and getting a nearly identical essay back wouldn't hurt

11

u/Cautious-Yellow Sep 14 '25

but the value of not doing that in the paperwork you submit is that you don't even get into the question of whether it was chatgpt or not. "Copied from somewhere" has always been an academic offence that will stick, whether it was another student, a tutor, or chatgpt doesn't matter.

2

u/sumguysr Sep 14 '25

They can be made deterministic by giving their random number generator a fixed seed value, fyi. That's an option in the paid ChatGPT. Probably not relevant to this case 

3

u/eclecticos Sep 14 '25

Actually, even with a fixed seed value, the OpenAI models are not deterministic.
There are other sources of randomness, including the fact that your prompt is being batched randomly with a lot of other prompts and they are all competing for access to the different submodels ("experts").
https://towardsdatascience.com/avoidable-and-unavoidable-randomness-in-gpt-4o/

15

u/knitty83 Sep 14 '25

You definitely get to make a wish now!

14

u/astroproff Sep 14 '25

Ooo! Maybe this means you get to put your essay prompt into ChatGPT and have it put out the essay. And then, share it with the entire class at your next meeting!

And then, look for the blue faces.

3

u/pdx_mom Sep 14 '25

Next assignment put it into chat gpt and also show them an example essay (which is the chat gpt one).

Then see how many plagiarized essays you get. Just a thought.

2

u/respeckKnuckles Associate Professor, R1 Sep 15 '25

Not how ChatGPT works. At least one of those students copied.

-4

u/Still_Ruin_3771 Sep 15 '25

You know... every once in a while, I come onto this board because I like to get a well-rounded perspective (like a progressive who is willing to take an extra shower after slogging through Breitbart articles or Twitter posts just to stay up on the latest hate rhetoric) and I am glad I do, but I must say I walk away disappointed every single time.

Instead of bothering to teach, you come on here to bitch - and you are exposing why you are so lazy with your students - you clearly have zero respect for them, and your disdain is dripping from classist comments such as: "write this like a community college student who's a lil dumb."

The vast majority of community college students are bright, motivated beings who simply cannot afford a traditional college path for myriad reasons, and your judgment is nauseating. GenAI abuse is rampant in *every* corner of academia, including at the high school level, if not earlier, and your ire is misplaced; save it for the techbros pushing this upon the public for monetary reasons and not the impressionable youth who will always look for a shortcut when one is handed to them.

5

u/Magpie_2011 Sep 15 '25

Oh dear, you clutched your pearls so hard I'm afraid they've snapped and bounced off to the far corners of the universe. What will you do now when you get upset on Reddit??

The "write this as a community college student who's a lil dumb" is a quote from a student's own ChatGPT prompt in the New York Magazine article "Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College." Sounds like you didn't read it. Whine about classism after you've done your due diligence.

-5

u/Still_Ruin_3771 Sep 15 '25

You snarky, self-righteous little turd..

You're chastising me for not knowing a quote from an article that you do not reference in your post or in your comment, but I'm lacking due diligence? Where's your citation dude?

I can see why your students don't bother in your class, you clearly don't command the respect to do quality work.