Cheating Has Always Been Here: AI Isn't the Real Problem
There’s a lot of anxiety around AI in education right now, especially when it comes to cheating. It seems like every other headline is about how students are using AI to cut corners—writing essays, solving problems, getting the work done without doing the learning. But let’s be honest for a second: AI didn’t invent cheating. Pupils have cheated long before AI entered the classroom. And if our biggest concern is that students are using AI to bypass their learning, then perhaps it’s time to look more closely at the learning experience itself rather than blaming the tool.
Cheating, in its many forms, has always been a symptom of something deeper. When students cheat, it’s often because they’re disengaged, overwhelmed, or don’t see value in the task. They might be struggling with the material, under pressure to perform, or simply unable to connect with what they’re being asked to do. They’re not necessarily motivated by a desire to deceive; sometimes, they’re just looking for a way to survive in a system that doesn’t feel meaningful to them. The emergence of AI simply makes it easier for students to exploit these underlying issues—it didn’t create them.
The recent scramble to regulate AI in education is often governed by fear—fear that AI will undermine our assessments, fear that students will use it as a shortcut, fear that learning itself will be devalued. But when we focus on AI as the enemy, we’re missing the point. The real problem isn’t that AI exists; the problem is that we haven’t created a learning environment where students are motivated to engage genuinely with the material. If we have to rely on surveillance and restriction to keep students from cheating, maybe the work we’re asking them to do doesn’t feel worthwhile enough in the first place.
The truth is, AI can be an incredibly powerful learning tool if used correctly. It can help students explore topics they’re curious about, support them in areas where they struggle, and make learning more interactive and engaging. Instead of approaching AI as a threat, what if we embraced it as a tool to improve how we teach and how students learn? If our learning experiences are rich, meaningful, and designed to foster real curiosity and understanding, students are far less likely to resort to cheating—AI or otherwise.
This means rethinking how we assess learning. If the main concern is that students can use AI to write an essay, then perhaps we should rethink what an essay is meant to assess in the first place. Are we testing students’ ability to articulate their ideas, their ability to research, or simply their ability to produce a piece of writing under pressure? How might we adapt our assessments to focus more on process, creativity, and personal engagement—things that AI cannot easily replicate? When students feel a genuine connection to what they’re doing, the temptation to cheat diminishes.
In the end, we can’t stop technological progress, nor should we try. AI is here, and it’s not going away. Instead of focusing on how to prevent students from using it, let’s focus on how we can use AI to enrich their learning experience and make education more relevant, engaging, and supportive. If we can do that, cheating won’t be the problem—because the learning will be its own reward.