Mastodawn

the roamer Jul 24, 2025

Met my MSc dissertation students this week. All good natured people. But the genAI rot is spreading.

About half of them do their work, and ask me questions about the problems they encounter. I advise on possible next steps. We meet again next week. All good.

But.

The other half, each of them perfectly well meaning, came back to me with questions that had nothing to do with their projects, and proposed solutions that are alien to the framework we are using. After some serious conversations, I found that in each case they had relied on chatGTP answers to their prompts. They had not read the actual papers I had given them.

Some had implemented equations that are patently false, not by error (this would be good for learning), but because chatGPT told them so.

A significant part our students can't read anymore. They need to interact with genAI, and they think this is research.

We are heading for trouble. In higher education, and in society at large.

#noAI #AcademicChatter

Show thread

Gerva Jul 25, 2025

@the_roamer I teach in a second year algorithms course.

AI use is painfully obvious, even for doing the practice exercises. A few of them are frank about it ("I asked 'the chat' but I don't understand the answer"), others not so much.

A guy came to me with written code "to check if it is ok", he admitted the copilot auto complete was doing the work for him. I showed him how to disable it (he didn't even know how!) for doing exercise work.

In person exams are our last line of defense IMHO

Show thread

the roamer

@sherwoodinc

Love the "I showed him how to disable it", probably the most important learning experience for this young man this year! :-)

Agree on the value of in-person exams, likewise other in-person setups.

Eg, for tutorials I will no longer pre-publish the exercises but do everything within the classroom. (To facilitate this, in future I will move to 1 two-hour class every fortnight, rather than 2 one-hour classes over the same period. Too late to make that change for 25/26.)

Also, thinking of dedicating a whole class to reading a small section of an article together, line by line.

#noAI