I think, therefore I am Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered an in-person final; scores fell 50% AI cheating leads to “a failed society,” professor says. Nate Anderson – Jul 8, 2026 5:42 pm | 499 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Ivy League college students are, by definition, intelligent. They don’t need to use generative AI to cheat on exams; they could just learn the material. But they also tend to be competitive, ambitious, and overscheduled, so AI can look like an easy shortcut that makes more time in their lives for things that can’t be done by a chatbot. When the pressure is on, which approach do they choose? A new scandal at Brown University reveals that huge numbers of these students are likely to cheat.
Record scores A recent survey of Princeton students found that 29.9 percent admitted to cheating with AI on at least one exam or assignment. But the situation at Brown gives us a better sense of what this kind of cheating looks like in one particular class—and just how much it may be substituting for actual learning. And we know all this because the blind economics professor at the center of it all, Roberto Serrano, is not letting it go. In just the last week, Serrano—who was born in Spain—has told his story to El País and Inside Higher Ed , which have both run significant pieces on the scandal.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/we-cannot-choose-to-become-idiots-the-ai-cheating-scandal-roiling-brown-university/
Record scores A recent survey of Princeton students found that 29.9 percent admitted to cheating with AI on at least one exam or assignment. But the situation at Brown gives us a better sense of what this kind of cheating looks like in one particular class—and just how much it may be substituting for actual learning. And we know all this because the blind economics professor at the center of it all, Roberto Serrano, is not letting it go. In just the last week, Serrano—who was born in Spain—has told his story to El País and Inside Higher Ed , which have both run significant pieces on the scandal.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/we-cannot-choose-to-become-idiots-the-ai-cheating-scandal-roiling-brown-university/