‘Nobody is blind to it’: mass cheating through AI puts integrity of Australian universities at risk, academics claim

Generative AI services such as ChatGPT have dramatically increased the potential for cheating at Australian universities, staff and students say. Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design

Australian academics say they are being pressured into passing hundreds of students suspected of plagiarism and other forms of cheating in order to maintain their universities’ revenue streams, threatening the integrity and international reputation of the entire sector.

The combination of commercialised cheating and the rise of AI now threatened to devalue degrees until they were “handed out like expensive lollies”, one academic said.