It's simpler than ever for students to cheat on their homework using ChatGPT or another AI chatbot. But one professor says he has no trouble sniffing out machine-written work.
"I have absolutely no problem with AI and students," Steve Hanke, who's been teaching at Johns Hopkins University for nearly 60 years, told Business Insider.
Hanke described himself as an "old fox" who finds it "very easy" to differentiate between a student's work and a chatbot's output.
The professor of applied economics, who served on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, pointed to the "poor writing skills" of today's students, even at elite universities, as the main reason he doesn't struggle.
Hanke said it's "blatant when a student submission has been generated by AI."
He also has a fairly good sense of his students' knowledge of economics, making it "pretty easy to spot" when a piece of work doesn't match their skill level, he said.
"The only problem that AI poses is that it requires the old fox to be on guard, more than would have been the case sans AI," he said.
Drusilla Blackman, a former dean of admissions at Harvard and Columbia, echoed Hanke's view during a recent interview with Business Insider.
Blackman said that it's almost always "evident" to an educator when a student has used AI, as what they've submitted doesn't match their standard of work, writing, or critical thinking.
"If they write something that is not proportional to that, it is detectible," said the founder of Deans of Admissions, a group that advises families on how to get their children into top-flight universities in the US and Britain.
Beyond detecting chatbot-generated work, several teachers told Business Insider last year that they were using AI defensively to develop AI-resistant assignments, and even reverting to handwritten assignments to discourage use of the tools.
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Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the International team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team then the broader International team. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other elite investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at [email protected] and follow him on X @theron_mohamed.
