I had seen people paying for services to write research for them.
I had seen people translate research papers from foreign languages(Like Russian for example) to English to avoid doing any work.
And even much more methods were used in college.
The reality is people can’t seem to understand how broken are education systems and how science had flows that are only now brought to light and studied.
While AI made fraud more accessible for sure and made the problems worse, it’s only a sign of how much education were broken before it.
In my eyes, the last years put a bright spotlight on degrees worth that a lot of companies had started valuing them less and most probably the value of official degrees will keep falling down as the years pass by.
I don’t see how I could possibly cheat during my engineering studies. Every exams was different from previous years, you had to detail the calculation steps, you had to be so fluent with using the formulas and fast at calculating in order to even have a chance to answer all questions. Most exams were calibrated so that only the top students have just enough time to finish.
We are producing graduates who are good at solving trivial technical problems at breakneck speed. Meanwhile, back in reality, nothing of value is created quickly. Who would board a plane that had been designed like this? It would be disconcerting to hear from a doctor ‘I did your surgery as fast as possible’ when waking from a medical procedure.
Engineering and science is done slowly and meticulously because it is very difficult and takes years to become competent and decades to truly master.
It’s taught us to learn fast. Also, it’s made so that you can’t lean answers by heart, you need to understand what your doing to have a chance to solve the exams. You can’t succeed by being fast and mindless, you need to be optimal (maybe skip some questions strategically). I think it’s a good learning method for engineering, teachs you to be thorough and methodical.
OP is making the argument that AI is just latest incarnation of plagiarism and I’m glad I don’t have to mark coursework any more because it is essentially worthless at this point. Under our current paradigm the only alternative is exams. I’ve taught good engineers who score highly in tests and some that don’t, that ability doesn’t translate linearly to real situations. What we learn in a university is rapidly superceded by our work experience and getting wrapped up in exam performance is futile. I would argue that knowing how to learn, curiousity, collaboration and tenacity will serve us better in the long run. High scores are about ego, competition and domination. The reality is that teamwork and slow accrual of knowledge are far more potent in the long run than the lone star that burns brightly but briefly.