Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered an in-person final; scores fell 50%
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
An Ivy League economics professor suspected widespread AI cheating after his spring 2026 course saw unusually high midterm exam scores, with an average of 96 out of 100 and 40 students scoring perfectly, compared to historical averages of 65 to 80 percent. The professor made the final exam in-person instead of take-home, and the average score dropped dramatically to 48, while 18 students dropped the course and 9 did not attend the final, with 22 of those 27 students having earned perfect scores on the midterm. The situation matters because it reveals how many elite college students may be relying on AI tools to cheat rather than learning material, according to the professor's concerns about the implications for society. A separate Princeton survey found that 29.9 percent of students admitted to cheating with AI on at least one exam or assignment, suggesting this is not isolated to one course or institution.
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