Picture this: you’re on the operating table for life saving heart surgery. Years earlier the doctor about to perform the surgery used AI to cheat their way to their degree.
Not exactly a confident scenario.
Or what about the engineer who used ChatGPT to sit their exams for them and to complete their assignments in under 20 minutes?
Would you feel safe driving over a bridge they designed?
This unfortunately could be the sad reality after the stunning expose in the Weekend Australian Magazine written by Ros Thomas where she describes the rampant use of AI like ChatGPT being used by up to a staggering 95 per cent of University students.
In the article, Thomas describes how student routinely deploy ChatGPT to write every assignment and essay.
And when it comes to exams, lecturers are using AI to set the exam, students are using AI to do the exam and AI is being used to mark the exam, according to the Thomas article headlined “How Australia’s students are using AI to cheat their way to a degree”.
And instead of studying to increase their knowledge they are instead researching ways to make the AI bot produce more human-like results.
Lecture halls are virtually empty and students are now in a position where if they don’t use AI to cheat, they will be left behind.
And, according to the Weekend Australian Magazine article, universities are aware of what’s going on but appear to be turning a blind eye while collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees.
The article describes times one university decided to have traditional in-person exams which would prevent students from using AI to cheat.
But this was met with extreme panic by the students who rallied together and revolted.
They made up excuses as to why they couldn’t make the exam time.
The university eventually relented and went back to an online exam.
The report also goes on to say the same thing is happening in our high schools as well.
So where does that leave us?
Are universities going to pump out graduates who got their degrees by using AI?
Back in the day it was the school bully who forced the weaker kid to do their homework but in that case the bully didn’t pick up a medical degree soon after.
I’m aware a doctor isn’t just a doctor because they did well in an exam – there is also practical training and experiences they need to go through before they are let anywhere near a patient.
But that student is still starting from a point where they didn’t learn what they needed to learn at university and must scramble to do their job efficiently and effectively.
That would be a worry if you had an AI cheat working on your car or building your house let alone performing potentially life-saving surgery.
AI was supposed to be the calculator of the 21st century.
You can recall the outcry when calculators were introduced but it didn’t change maths or make maths any easier.
It helped us make the calculations required to complete the problem with the onus still on the student to think their way through it.
The calculator did not do the exam for them in the same way a screwdriver can’t build a home – it needs a human to be involved in the process.
But fast forward to 2026 and the prospect of AI being able to obtain a university degree and it poses serious question about humanity and the future of human thinking – or lack of it.
You could enrol a virtual student and complete all your assignments and pass all your exams using ChatGPT or the many other AI models just like it.
Unfortunately the students cruising their way through universities today and obtaining degrees are not virtual – they are real – and they will be the professionals of the future we will be looking to for our medical needs, building our cities and running our economy.
You can read Ros Thomas’s story in the Weekend Australian Magazine here.
