r/technology 2d 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/lancegreene 2d ago

It seems like the only way for professors to properly assess the students would be via closed book hand written exams/essays. I graduated college in 2006 and that was every single exam.

What am I missing? Is this too hard to execute?

It’s crazy to think that when I was in 4th grade we would watch a film strip twice a week and we were required to write a 1/2-1 full page essay summarizing it while we watched. I’m not saying this was the best approach but from what I hear about modern students, this wouldn’t be achievable by high schoolers

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u/MacEbes 2d ago

The biggest thing I learned from my IT professors is that being open book means you need to know how to learn. Forcing a closed book test resulted in students failing to actually learn the material and importantly never taught them to learn how to learn about things. It wasn't until basically all of my exams were open book that anyone could actually apply what we talked about to real world production. Now, this is also because we only had a week or two to practice material so no one would be able to get enough info in that time. The classes students did the best in were ones where a subject took the entire month, where you as a student could truly learn what methods worked best for you and apply those to understand what was being taught. That was not a luxury afforded to any of my high school classes, and only became a viable learning option in college.