Brown University & AI
2026-07-08 17:37:33.16478+02 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Inside Higher Ed: Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat
As colleges and universities grapple with AI, cheating must be taken seriously, Serrano said. “We cannot afford to have a society in which a significant fraction of our best young minds think that cheating is OK,” he said. “That leads to a declining society, to a failed society … We cannot choose to become idiots.”
Via.
Brown University: Generative AI in Teaching and Learning (GAITL) Committee Final Report and Recommendations (PDF) was published while all of this was unfolding, and mentions that:
Among Brown student respondents, 56% of undergraduate respondents and 67% of graduate and medical student respondents reported intentionally using GenAI tools daily or weekly. Master’s degree students identified themselves as frequent users at the highest rate (85%), followed by medical students (77%) and then doctoral students (50%). Adoption of GenAI technologies also has distinct patterns across knowledge areas, with a large majority of students in the life sciences (79%) and physical sciences (73%) identifying as frequent users. Students studying the humanities and the arts had the lowest rate of frequent users (41%).
And then notes that the camel is already in the tent:
Google Gemini tools are currently approved by OIT for use by students and instructors, and are accessible, free of charge, through their Brown accounts. Subject to constraints due to cost and assurances around data privacy and accessibility standards, the University should provide access to additional GenAI tools, since they differ significantly in their strengths and weaknesses. For example, ChatGPT, Claude Code and Brisk’s quiz generator provide different functionalities and would be an excellent complement to Gemini. In addition, many services have “premium” licenses available, and there are equity issues if some students have sufficient resources to use them and others in the same classes do not.
I'm having trouble reconciling bemoaning the use of generative AI and LLMs to take your take-home tests for ya, while providing lie machines bundled in with tuition.