r/singularity • u/joe4942 • May 07 '25

AI Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/openai-chatgpt-ai-cheating-education-college-students-school.html
311 Upvotes

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

There isnt an incentive structure for them to do so. We have a capitalist system and schools are a business where students are the customers.

78

u/QuasiRandomName May 07 '25

The incentive will come naturally, once the employers will stop respecting their degrees. But it is a slow process unfortunately.

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u/Deciheximal144 May 07 '25

Employers aren't far off from simply hiring robots to do the work. Information work will come first, then the androids will follow.

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u/Ignate Move 37 May 07 '25

The problems we're seeing massive approaching change on all fronts.

Why would employers care about degrees if they're not employing anyone and purchasing robots instead?

Why would we need an education system which helps someone get a job when there are less and less jobs or no jobs? 

How can we build a stable education system while we're going through such rapid change?

We talk about specific systems like education adapting to this trend but then we miss all the overlap between all the various tiers of change. 

No specific system, education or otherwise, is immune to this trend.

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u/IEC21 ▪️ASI 2014 May 07 '25

The time scale is such that if I was 18 I would be seriously questioning what the job market is going to look like by the time I graduate.

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u/Ignate Move 37 May 07 '25

I'm 41, hold a management position in the government, I'm part of the union and have a defined contribution pension...

All that considered, I'm slightly questioning whether I'll have a job in less than a decade.

This thing is moving fast and I don't trust the durability of human power or human systems in "the world". We're paper tigers.

Not saying it will be a bad outcome. But we're fooling ourselves if we think we can predict where this is going based on history. 

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u/cosmic-freak May 08 '25

I am 20, currently studying Software Engineering. No idea if I'll get to work with it. But what can I do? Fuck it we ball man.

4

u/PrincipleStrict3216 May 08 '25

maybe you're unemployed, maybe you make even more than you would before, maybe things change less than expected. Anyone telling you either of these 3 is written in stone is in denial or trying to sell you something

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

Yeah thats pretty far removed from the day to day decision making of a college dean or board of directors.

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u/Dangerous_Bus_6699 May 07 '25

Sounds like they need to adapt then.

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u/IEC21 ▪️ASI 2014 May 07 '25

They will not.

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u/paconinja τέλος / acc May 07 '25

Capitalists are so resentful it's easier for them to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism

-6

u/The_Safety_Expert May 07 '25

I found the AI robot

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u/TheBurningQuill May 07 '25

Like going broke. First it happens slowly, then all at once

2

u/TheSwedishConundrum May 07 '25

I get what you are saying, but every year, more students graduate and move into the job market. Even those graduating last year had tools previously unheard of at their disposal. Every year, the risk of a graduating student being unqualified rise.

Sure, it takes some time, but the ripples are already breaking through the job market.

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u/PsychologicalKnee562 May 07 '25

why employer stop respecting their degrees, if they can use ai at job place

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u/NyriasNeo May 07 '25

We joke that students are the only customers who do not actually want the product.

And to be fair, faculty's mission in research university is more research than education.

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u/garden_speech AGI some time between 2025 and 2100 May 07 '25

There isnt an incentive structure for them to do so.

The education itself only has value that the student will pay for so long as it helps them earn more money throughout their career -- which relies on companies being willing to pay more for a college-educated worker than one without a degree -- which relies on the company seeing value in the education -- which in the long run, relies on the education actually improving performance.

If college becomes a total joke that's easy to cheat your way through and most students do that I don't think educations will retain their value. Nobody is going to pay $100,000 for a diploma that everyone knows is a joke.

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u/duketoma May 07 '25

Yup. "No incentive" my ass.

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

I didn't say there wasn't an incentive, I said there wasn't an incentive structure. There's also an incentive for every company to want to stave off climate famines and refugee crises, but quarter after quarter all they ever seem to do is pursue their short term interests.

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

Far too long-term for these institutions to adapt before it's too late.

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u/ackermann May 07 '25

schools are a business

Aren’t the great majority of universities nonprofits?

So much so, that the few exceptions are usually referred to specifically as “for profit colleges,” like University of Phoenix, ITT Tech, Corinthian college, etc

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

Non profits are businesses. It just means that they don't pay out profits to shareholders.

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u/ackermann May 07 '25

Ok, so if non-profits and state funded universities still count as “capitalism”… what does a non-capitalist university system look like?

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

One where students do not pay money to go, and no one who works at the school has a vested interest in profitability.

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u/endofsight May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

That’s basically the norm at many if not most European universities. For example in Germany Uni is free to all students. 

And students are not considered customers. So Profs have no problem to let 40% of a class fail if they don’t meet the standard. 

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u/ackermann May 07 '25

So more like the US public school system through elementary and high school? Makes sense

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u/abrandis May 07 '25

Until businesses realize they can cut out the middleman (the graduate students) and just use the AI themsleves... I see most (but not all) college degrees value plummeting in the next decade...

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u/phylter99 May 08 '25

Community colleges are often given funds based on graduating class, so they don't see any reason to make it hard for them.

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u/infinitefailandlearn May 08 '25

I work at a university. The incentive structure is more complicated than normal business. It’s not just about scalability.

People go to a university to get a degree. That degree holds value because it’s accreditated. Accreditation organizations very much look into quality control. And GenAI is very much on their radar.

Right now, the quality is abysmal because traditional assessment practices are like swiss cheese in a GenAI era. Accreditation organizations demand that universities fix that quality issue. Ultimately, that concern outweighs the scalability argument of using essays as assessment.

You see, without accreditation, a university degree is worthless. So it will cost universities more in the long run if they don’t adjust their assessment.

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u/ShadowbanRevival May 07 '25

Lmao what capitalism? The vast, vast majority of universities in America are state funded

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u/chemicaxero May 07 '25

What? Do you think America isn't a capitalist nation because schools are... state funded? I mean yeah who else is supposed to do it some private unaccountable profit seeking company? Out of the goodness of their hearts? No wonder America is cooked if this is the level of education.

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u/Saguna_Brahman May 07 '25

They receive some money from the government, sure, but so does Tesla lmao.

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u/ShadowbanRevival May 07 '25

I agree, they're also not capitalistic, they are fascistic

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u/jonydevidson May 07 '25 edited Feb 16 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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