AI exam cheating causes shock in South Korea

(Dan Tri) - A series of students were caught red-handed using ChatGPT and AI tools during exams, forcing many prestigious universities in Korea to immediately review.

South Korea's elite university system is being rocked by a series of large-scale exam cheating scandals involving artificial intelligence (AI), exposing a serious flaw in academic oversight.

Notably, all three universities in the "SKY" group (Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Korea University) - the academic icons in Korea - have simultaneously reported dozens of cases of students using AI tools to cheat in recent exams.

Yonsei University (Photo: Getty Images).

The incident, which was made public at Yonsei University last Sunday, has become the center of attention. During the online midterm exam of a course related to ChatGPT, a professor discovered signs of cheating by dozens of students.

More seriously, cheating behavior is very diverse, from using textbooks, specialized software, to using ChatGPT itself to take the exam. Of the hundreds of students participating, the school confirmed that up to 40 people admitted to cheating and will receive a score of 0. Students were also caught red-handed sharing answers on AI-enabled phone applications.

Similar cases of collective cheating were soon exposed. At Korea University, a group of students admitted to using AI in an online test for a class on aging societies, even sharing screen recordings and answers in a group chat. Seoul National University also discovered students using AI to cheat on a statistics exam, forcing the school to re-take the exam.

It’s undeniable that generative AI has become ingrained in the university environment. A 2024 survey found that more than 90% of South Korean university students had experience using these tools for schoolwork. However, it’s rare for the country’s most prestigious schools to be embroiled in this scandal.

Many educators say universities have failed to keep up with the pace of technological development. “AI is a tool for storing and organizing information, so we can no longer evaluate university students based on those skills,” said Professor Park Joo-Ho of Hanyang University.

He stressed that current education methods are outdated and the focus needs to change to testing creativity - something that AI cannot replicate.

This shocking event forced top Korean universities to face a difficult question: How to maintain academic integrity in the technological age?

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/gian-lan-thi-cu-bang-ai-gay-chan-dong-tai-han-quoc-20251116135651485.htm