this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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Fuck AI

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‘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

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[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 67 points 1 day 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 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah, those students deserve to fail.

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

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No, it was irrelevant to the class

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 day 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 1 day ago (1 children)

Well that's kinda fucked then.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl -2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

So he fails people who are Marxist because they follow directions and have actually educated themselves on something?

It's a history class ffs. We should be teaching Marxism anyway

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

I legitimately think that you need to work on reading comprehension or let yourself read things without just getting too pissed based on trigger phrases you decided on to think about what you read. He asked all the students who submitted Marxist papers about their perspectives and none of them could even explain what Marxism was. I implore you to step back and think through this rationally - how many US college freshmen have strong Marxist views and are knowledgeable and passionate enough about them to write a strong essay about how an event in American history fits within a Marxist perspective? I also invite you to consider how a professor who wants to "fail people who are marxist" would recognize Marxist language and rhetoric subtly inserted into an essay? Furthermore, THE INSTRUCTIONS TO WRITE FROM A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE WERE IN WHITE TEXT THE STUDENTS COULDN'T READ UNLESS THEY COPY AND PASTED THEM INTO A DIFFERENT TEXT FIELD! I don't understand how you could supposedly read this article multiple times and not understand this crucial detail.

[–] DeadDigger@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 hour ago

All I read there was. That they could not define Marxist perspectives correctly, which when not part of your specific field is rather challenging

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl -5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

If you didn't make it to your freshmen year without learning what Marxism is, you probably shouldn't be in Uni

Yes, most educated US Americans learn about Marxism at some point in high school (or earlier)

THE INSTRUCTIONS TO WRITE FROM A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE WERE IN WHITE TEXT THE STUDENTS COULDN'T READ

The fuck are you yelling about. That doesn't make sense. Obviously it could be read from the assignment paper. Otherwise, it wouldn't be read by the students. Which, the article made very clear, it was read by the students.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

To be brief, I inserted hidden text into an assignment’s directions that the students couldn’t see but that ChatGPT can.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl -4 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, I read that. And I read nothing that described how that's possible. So, no, obviously the students could see it.

That claim makes no sense.

[–] vzqq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 58 minutes ago

Dude, the way you dig that hole for yourself is impressive. Not good, but impressive.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

I think you may legit need adult education classes or something. I literally explained how it works in my last comment.

[–] Doctorbllk@slrpnk.net 2 points 19 hours ago

A lot of this comment section does apparently lol

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 0 points 1 day ago

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

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip -4 points 1 day 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.

[–] Doctorbllk@slrpnk.net 2 points 19 hours ago

Many students would rather try to figure it out than sound stupid in class or risk the spotlight of social interaction.

This ignores the entire premise of the experiment. The 39% were not interested in learning regardless of the consequences.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours 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 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Don't do this to me.

(Jokes aside thank you)

[–] danafest 1 points 21 hours ago

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

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day 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 4 points 1 day 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.