Artificial intelligence
Abitur fraud with ChatGPT: Bavarian teachers’ association for reform of the grading system in schools
According to a study, more than 50 percent of all students have already used artificial intelligence for their lessons.
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In Hamburg there were several attempts to cheat on the Abitur – with the help of artificial intelligence. The incident fuels the debate about the German school system again.
Artificial intelligence has long since reached our schools. After attempts to cheat on the Abitur exams in Hamburg this week, the Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV) is calling for a transnational school reform. “We have to realize that our performance system is old school,” said association president Simone Fleischmann of the German Press Agency.
Above all, she criticized the current practice of awarding grades: “We finally have to stop seeing grades as the only thing that makes you happy. In the private sector, everyone does assessments. What good is a five for me then?” She pleads for a new rating system, without giving exact details of what that could look like.
Fleischmann gets a headwind from Jürgen Böhm, Federal Chairman of the Association of German Secondary School Teachers (VDR). In an interview with the German Press Agency, he says: “Grades and AI are mutually exclusive? The logic behind this supposed statement is not clear.” Rather, he sees the responsibility in the stricter control of exams, so that an incident like that in Hamburg does not happen again so quickly.
Passed the Abitur thanks to ChatGPT?
In Hamburg, there had apparently been isolated attempts at fraud with the chatbot ChatGPT during the written Abitur exams. As the North German Broadcasting Corporation (NDR) reported on Thursday, in at least one case a student was caught by a supervising teacher with a corresponding open program on his mobile phone. He also admitted this.
The Hamburg school authorities also confirmed some suspected cases to the broadcaster. In this, teachers became suspicious when correcting exams because the quality fluctuated greatly. Some sections were flawed, others were flawless. A check with special software revealed a high probability that the texts had been written using artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
In these cases, however, according to the school authorities, it is difficult to prove fraudulently with legal certainty because the students were not caught in the act. According to the report, the chairman of the Association of Hamburg Gymnasium School Management, Christian Gefert, who was interviewed by NDR about the cases, assumed isolated cases. He does not count on mass fraud. However, he called for clearer rules from the school authorities on how to deal with AI in schools.
Debate about stricter rules for AI
ChatGPT is a chat program based on advanced AI technology from the startup OpenAI, which has been open to the public since November. The software generates complex written answers to user queries in a matter of seconds. Larger companies are now also developing similar chatbots. In addition to enthusiasm, the development also triggers massive fears. There are calls for government regulation.
The use of chatbots like ChatGPT in schools and universities is one of the areas that has recently been the subject of much discussion in Germany. A survey of several hundred young people published by the German digital industry association Bitkom on Tuesday showed that around half of them were already using the software for homework, texts or studying.