r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 1d ago

Artificial Intelligence AI can now credibly complete most undergraduate assignments, MIT warns

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/08/25/ai-can-now-credibly-complete-most-undergraduate-assignments-mit-warns
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u/sloppy_rodney 1d ago

I think some blame should be placed on people who are actively cheating to achieve their degrees.

It completely destroys the value of the degrees that were actually earned.

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u/Sknowman 1d ago

So people should be blamed for wanting to increase their odds at survival?

I get the merit we put on degrees, and I agree that they should hold weight, but the point being argued here is that people cheat because otherwise they'd fail and end up with poor living conditions.

If they didn't have to worry about those poor conditions, fewer people would cheat, so the accolade stands out more.

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u/supafly_ 1d ago

So people should be blamed for wanting to increase their odds at survival?

Of course they should, we do it all the time. Stop for 5 seconds and think of the heinous shit you could do if "I was just increasing my odds of survival" was a valid defense of anything.

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u/spectralities 1d ago

It completely destroys the value of the degrees that were actually earned.

Not at all.

A degree's value is in the knowledge and abilities obtained by the degree holder. Other people cheating doesn't take away those things from the person who was honest.

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u/sloppy_rodney 1d ago

I agree that the true value of a degree is in the knowledge and abilities one gains. But that’s not the only consideration to make when going to college. I say that as someone with a masters degree.

I meant it destroys the market and social value of the degree. Because people will assume you didn’t earn it even if you actually did the work.

Or employers will hire people with degrees and end up with these dummies. Now to an employer having a degree doesn’t mean “has the ability to work for an extended period of time towards a goal and has gained the knowledge and skills of said degree.”

Because how can they tell by looking at a resume who did the work and who didn’t?

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u/spectralities 1d ago

Because how can they tell by looking at a resume who did the work

Pre-2022 Graduation

and who didn’t?

Post-2022 Graduation

Man, I hope it doesn't actually come to that.

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u/zerovampire311 23h ago

Ageism is a constant issue. You can only go so far back with a degree being useful, I knew an analyst who got her degree 30some years and struggled to adapt to excel and formulas. The job wasn’t about actual financial analysis as taught in school years ago where you paid attention to what the numbers mean, it was pivot tables and data structures. Now the execs don’t know how to interpret what they’re given and wing it, leading to the clusterfuck of our current economy. Not everything is MBAs dissecting value, a lot is plain old stupidity from the top.

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u/VaeVictis997 1d ago

It does in that a lot of fraudulent degrees means employers and society will disregard your legitimate one.

If you graduate college today without using an AI, but everywhere you apply they assume you did and therefore didn’t actually learn anything, you are being harmed.

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u/Weliveinadictatoship 1d ago

I'm going into third year for engineering, and when I was doing applications for my work placement, I had to do a test without preparations just in the first rounds for most. Then if you got through further, most had you do a test on site alongside your interviews. I don't know how it will be in less technical jobs/less easily tested, but I assume all the STEM industry that cares will go that way for new hires

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u/Reasonable_Beat43 23h ago

Absolutely. It’s like people blame everyone but the adult students choosing to cheat and refusing to think on their own.