Though artificial intelligence is crucial to the future of higher education, concerns surrounding academic integrity arise as the technology evolves. With the recent release of ChatGPT-4, higher education institutions deliberate the role and impact AI tools have on the industry.
Student use of AI-generated content does not always imply plagiarism or academic dishonesty. In fact, the technology can be used to help catapult students’ ideas and can be used to help students learn. However, it is widely considered academic dishonesty when students use AI tools such as ChatGTP to complete assignments on their behalf and then submit the assignments as their own work.
With the rising concern in the industry and to gauge AI-generated content trends in education, Copyleaks, an AI solution enterprise, compared close to a million high school and college assignments submitted to the site between February and March of 2023 across the globe. Every student was aware that AI content detectors were being used by their institution on their submitted work. Results of the study indicate that there was a general decrease in the use of AI-generated content, supporting the notion that the presence of an AI detector can be a helpful deterrent.
The study comprised anonymized data from tens of thousands of college and high school students worldwide, using the data from Copyleaks to answer the question: How prevalent is the use of AI-generated content in education? A summary of the findings are as follows:
- 9.7% of all papers and assignments contained AI-generated content, a 14.4% decrease
- 5.9% of high school student papers and assignments contained AI-generated content, a 68.9% decrease
- 10.4% of college student papers and assignments contained AI-generated content, a 5.5% decrease
The results indicate that among the highest rates of AI-generated content originated from US-based career and technical colleges with a total reported usage of 34.03% in March 2023, a 37.3% increase from the data collected in February 2023. On the other hand, US-based community colleges were among the lowest rates of AI-generated content, with a total reported usage of 2.71% in March, a decrease of 70.63% from February’s data.
“Almost across the board, we saw drops in the use of AI content in student assignments,” said Alon Yamin, Co-Founder and CEO of Copyleaks. “From February to March, we observed an astounding 68.9% decrease in the use of AI-generated content among high school students across the globe. The key takeaway from our most recent data is that when an educational institution utilizes an AI content detector, and the students know about it, it can be an excellent deterrent.”
Comparing February and March 2023 data, there has been a significant decrease in AI-generated content among US-based students:
- 8.5% of submissions were comprised of AI-generated content across US-based students, a decrease of 29.3% from February
- 5.9% across US-based high school students, a 43.9% decrease from February
- 9.2% across US-based college students, a decrease of 14.8% from February
The results also indicate that the decrease in AI-generated content has been consistent across all college types within the United States. March 2023 data from US-based community colleges (9.7%), private universities (7.5%), and public universities (9.9%) all indicate a decrease of 15-19% from February 2023’s data.
“What this data continues to show us is that as we continue to navigate the future of AI technology in the educational world, there are many positives to come that can automate, improve and support current processes,” Yamin commented. “But there are still boundaries and limits to be addressed regarding the use of AI. So we’re still figuring it out, but I am hopeful regarding the future of education and AI technology and confident that we will be able to help in setting up and enforcing these boundaries.”
For more articles on AI and higher education, see:
Professors Face Challenges with Students Using AI Writing Tool
AI in Higher Education: ChatGPT is Only the Beginning
Copyleaks Launches Multi-Language AI Content Detection Solution