Stanford University students discuss 'How AI has changed college life.'

With the advent of generative AI, many students are now using AI , and cheating and other academic misconduct using AI are becoming a serious concern . A current Stanford University student spoke about students' use of AI.

A Stanford student reflects on his ChatGPT class and a culture of 'just a little bit of fraud'
https://the-decoder.com/a-stanford-student-reflects-on-his-chatgpt-class-and-a-culture-of-just-a-little-bit-of-fraud/

Theo Baker, who will graduate from Stanford University in June 2026, is one of the first generation to spend his entire college life with the chat AI ChatGPT. ChatGPT was released about two months after Baker enrolled at Stanford in the fall of 2022, and it gained over one million users in less than a week after its release.

ChatGPT, an interactive chat AI, surpassed 1 million users in less than a week after its launch. But what exactly is ChatGPT? - GIGAZINE

Stanford University's reputation was already damaged even before Baker enrolled. This was because Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, a blood testing company often called 'the biggest fraud in history ,' and Do Kwon , who was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a US district court for cryptocurrency fraud , were both Stanford graduates.

According to Baker, the release of ChatGPT after his generation entered university made cheating easier and more profitable than ever before. Baker says that some students used AI to embezzle dorm funds, others faked COVID-19 infections to get Uber Eats credits, and some even signed pledges promising not to use ChatGPT while it was still open in their browsers.

Furthermore, in an on-campus survey conducted by Baker during his junior year of college among 849 computer science students, 49% of respondents said they would 'choose to cheat rather than fail an exam.' AI-powered cheating has been attracting attention in the education sector for some time, and there have been reports of a surge in the rental of smart glasses for cheating purposes.

Smart glasses rentals for cheating purposes are on the rise - GIGAZINE

Furthermore, there was an incident where a Stanford University student published a paper claiming groundbreaking results using Meta's AI model ' Llama 3-V, ' but in reality, it was simply a case of plagiarism of MiniCPM-Llama3-V2.5, an open-source multimodal AI model developed by China's OpenBMB .

As a result of widespread AI-driven cheating, Stanford University was forced to reinstate in-person exams in April 2026, after a ban of over a century. Similarly, Princeton University also abolished a rule allowing professors to leave the classroom during exams for the first time in 133 years due to the prevalence of AI-based cheating, indicating that Stanford is not the only university struggling with students' use of AI.

Student newspaper reports that the rule allowing professors to leave the classroom during exams has been abolished for the first time in 133 years due to the spread of cheating using AI - GIGAZINE

Baker cites a 'distorted incentive structure' as the reason why AI-based fraud is rampant. AI-related media outlet THE DECODER points out that a computer science degree from Stanford University no longer guarantees entry-level jobs, and junior developers feel their job market is closing off while they focus on their studies.

THE DECODER also pointed out that a problem is the influx of massive amounts of money into so-called ' rapper startups' that simply repackage AI models developed by other companies. In fact, the valuation of Perplexity, which was originally a rapper of OpenAI's AI models, rose from $1 billion (approximately 159 billion yen) in April 2024 to $20 billion (approximately 3.18 trillion yen) in September 2025. THE DECODER writes that if a classmate casually mentions that they 'bought a house in Las Vegas for tax purposes,' 'it's understandable that doing homework normally would seem pointless.'

Furthermore, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center among 13- to 17-year-olds living in the United States revealed that more than half of them use AI for their studies and information gathering. The survey also found that the lower a household's income, the more likely young people are to rely on AI.

A survey reveals that more than half of teenagers use AI for academics and information gathering, and 12% receive emotional support from AI - GIGAZINE