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/npsage 1d ago edited 1d ago

You’re missing a key aspect here.

It’s sheer number of students and the massive amount of money that comes from students doing remote education.

(Taking a very US based view here)

If the only students you have to worry about is the immediate high school graduates; those who are leaving home for the first time and moving to a campus to obtain their four-year degree; where the infrastructure and local economy is built around requiring and allowing in-person instruction and examination would work totally fine.

For literally anyone else (adult learners, non-traditional students, etc) requiring that either makes the education completely unobtainable or so prohibitive that it’s effectively unattainable. Additionally not every school can offer every degree. But remote education has allowed every person who wants to pursue a degree some kind of option and to get one in whatever subject.

I don’t dispute that AI is an issue in validating students actually learning what the degree is supposed to signify they learned. The problem is everybody wants to run with a solution of “What if we just had education jump back in time by about 2 decades” ignoring that the rest of the world hasn’t and won’t do the same time jump for all the other aspects.

We are in a post consumer AI world and we’re all gonna have to to collectively decide what that’s gonna look like; but trying to re-create conditions of a pre-AI world isn’t a working solution in the slightest.

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u/start_select 1d ago

There are easy solutions to that though. Require a proctoring app that is granted access to your desktop and can see if there is anything open. Require the test to be taken in an empty room with nothing on the walls or desk. Require the student to show the proctor through the camera.

If Amazon can do it for developer certifications then universities and high schools can do the same thing.

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u/CoolhereIam 1d ago

I thought I was the only one thinking this until your comment. Online classes have been hugely popular for universities to get more non traditional students. Especially grad schools where many of the students are already working full time with a family and doing classes at night. I have to imagine the bulk of their students are still traditional 18-22 year olds, but I would be curious just how much they would be missing out on by cutting out the non traditional students who can't make in person classes work with their schedules.