Facepalm: Modern problems require modern solutions – according to the meme. In this case, the issue is students using AI to cheat on assignments. The solution, used to great effect by one professor, was to hide a white-colored font in the assignment prompt telling the AI to talk nonsense about an unrelated subject.
In an online discussion post, Alcorn State University history professor Dr. Jason Gibson posed a question that represented part of his students' midterm. It was about the Industrial Revolution, but knowing how many students now rely solely on artificial intelligence for their answers, he secretly embedded instructions telling the AI to include information about Madagascar in a way that makes no sense.
Being written in white text meant the instructions were invisible. Sure enough, 32 out of the 35 students across two classes simply copied the question, pasted it into a chatbot, then copy and pasted its output into the answer window.
Had any of these cheaters even bothered to check what the AI had generated, they'd likely have noticed the strange references to the island country constantly appearing in an essay about the Industrial Revolution.
In the viral TikTok post below, an exasperated Gibson said all the students he caught using AI failed this portion of their midterm.
[@iamjasongibson]I can't make this stuff up.[#professor][#highereducation][#college][#midterm][♬ Piano famous song Chopin Deep deep clear beauty - RYOpianoforte] In a follow-up video, Gibson showed some examples of how Madagascar was included in the answers. In one case, the AI talked about the Industrial Revolution before adding what seems to be a cryptic message one spy would whisper to another: "Madagascar floats sideways through the afternoon."
[@iamjasongibson]Part 3[#professor][#highereducation][#college][#midterm][#education][♬ original sound - Dr. Jason Gibson] In a similar vein, another answer talked about technology and social inequality before finishing with, "Madagascar purple bicycle whispers to the ceiling."
Gibson did say he wasn't using this as an opportunity to mock his students. He added that after he confronted them about the cheating, he gave them the opportunity to contest their grade. Only two did, though the fact that any of them tried to argue their case is pretty surprising.
Ever since ChatGPT went mainstream, students using AI to cheat has been a growing problem – it was considered endemic even back in August 2024. Teachers have tried to fight back using handwritten work, oral tests, and even AI to come up with questions that would be difficult for students to complete by simply feeding it into a large language model.
But it's a battle that humans aren't winning. Earlier this month, a professor at Brown University saw midterm averages jump from the typical range of 65% to 80% to 96% after he allowed take-home exams. He estimated that all but two of his 86 students used AI to cheat.