this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
561 points (98.3% liked)

Fuck AI

4629 readers
2272 users here now

"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"

A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

‘But there is a difference between recognising AI use and proving its use. So I tried an experiment. … I received 122 paper submissions. Of those, the Trojan horse easily identified 33 AI-generated papers. I sent these stats to all the students and gave them the opportunity to admit to using AI before they were locked into failing the class. Another 14 outed themselves. In other words, nearly 39% of the submissions were at least partially written by AI.‘

Article archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20251125225915/https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-trap-to-catch-students-cheating-ai_uk_691f20d1e4b00ed8a94f4c01

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 64 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Let me tell you why the Trojan horse worked. It is because students do not know what they do not know. My hidden text asked them to write the paper “from a Marxist perspective”. Since the events in the book had little to do with the later development of Marxism, I thought the resulting essay might raise a red flag with students, but it didn’t.

I had at least eight students come to my office to make their case against the allegations, but not a single one of them could explain to me what Marxism is, how it worked as an analytical lens or how it even made its way into their papers they claimed to have written. The most shocking part was that apparently, when ChatGPT read the prompt, it even directly asked if it should include Marxism, and they all said yes. As one student said to me, “I thought it sounded smart.”

Christ.......

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Then they whine on Reddit when they can't get a job.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 7 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, those students deserve to fail.

I assume he taught what Marxism is in the class, yeah?

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

No, it was irrelevant to the class

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 11 points 9 hours ago

No, it was irrelevant to the class

This is university, not high school or college.

They should've checked it themselves, realised that it was ridiculous and either removed it, or at least asked the prof if that's supposed to be there.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Well that's kinda fucked then.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Maybe you need his class lmao. Re read the article and have a think about what it means.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 5 hours ago

I don't get it. I try to see everything in life through Marxist and feminist lens.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip -1 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

". My hidden text asked them to write the paper “from a Marxist perspective”

Freshmen.

That's a dangerous proof.

He could have said to write from a zagnoore brandle-frujt perspective. Some would have scanned the assignment, ignored the part they didn't understand, and kept chooching right along. Many students would rather try to figure it out than sound stupid in class or risk the spotlight of social interaction.

Interrogating each of them on the material is the only safe way.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 18 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

The Trojan worked because the students who read the assignment would not have seen the reference to Marxism. Only by copy pasting the text in to another field would that show up.

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 16 points 9 hours ago

The article mentions that he gave them a chance to explain why they chose to write it from a Marxist perspective and none of the students even knew what Marxism was.

He gave students an out in the event they actually did write from a Marxist pov

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

You're assuming the freshmen would recognize a reference to marxism and not ignore that part because they didn't understand. It's what inexperienced students do

[–] AlfredoJohn@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 hours ago

He made it hidden text in the assignment, i.e im guessing he made the text the same color as the background. Only when one copied the text and pasted it as instructions for a prompt would it be seen. Hence it was a Trojan horse on the assignment where those not using ai blatantly would not find it.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 4 points 8 hours ago

I'm not assuming a damn thing. He literally made it impossible to see the reference to Marxism unless you copy pasted the text in to another field. Like you would do if you were feeding it to an AI. Think very small white font.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 49 minutes ago) (2 children)

Honestly interrogating each one on the material would be best but costly. Some classes have 80 students and professors have more than one class.

Also rest of the article says he asked students objecting accusations to tell what Marxism is and they admitted afterwards.

Apparently chatgpt asked "are you sure you want marxist perspective" as topic is older and not that directly related to marxism. One said they picked yes because quote, unquote "it sounded smart."

[–] danafest@infosec.pub 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

The idiom you're looking for in your last sentence is quote, unquote

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Don't do this to me.

(Jokes aside thank you)

[–] danafest@infosec.pub 1 points 1 hour ago

No shame at all, just wanted to let you know!

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Also rest of the article says he asked students objecting accusations to tell what Marxism is and they admitted afterwards.

Yes, I read it. All of it.

He definitely caught a number of them, but he called it proof, it should NOT be treated as proof, an indicator at best. If it were proof he could just fail them all and not catch false positives.

Totally agree about the number of people to interview being expensive. But it is more adequate as proof.

What he didn't do wasn't wrong, but he can't count on that to be a point to fail.

[–] AlfredoJohn@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago

He definitely caught a number of them, but he called it proof, it should NOT be treated as proof, an indicator at best. If it were proof he could just fail them all and not catch false positives.

So you frequently wrote your papers from a Marxists perspective randomly when it had no relevance to the topic at hand? He hid the text by making it the same color as the background in the assignment so only when one copy and pasted the assignment or attached the file to their prompt would it be picked up. The only real false positives would be those staunchly Marxists students or someone using a screen reader. Which I think if you are inserting Marxism into random essays that are not relevant you probably are going to be bringing it up constantly in every setting you can and would also be able to explain it. It definitely is a reason to be failed on an assignment if he caught you with this.