3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 10
Summary
A.I. agents can now handle an entire online class for a student—logging in, watching lectures, taking quizzes, writing papers and even joining class chats.
More than half of American college students took at least 1 online course last year, giving the technology a large target as professors struggle to police cheating in self-paced, fully digital classes.
Unlike in-person courses, where schools have shifted toward oral presentations and handwritten exams, many online programs rely on prerecorded lectures and digital submissions that are harder to secure.
The spread of agent-driven cheating threatens a sector universities have expanded for years, even as online learning has been promoted as an equity tool for working parents and other nontraditional students.