How to Stop Cheating in the A.I. Era

To the Editor: Adam Grant's Aug. 30 guest essay, 'To Stop Cheating in School, Address the Root Cause,' argues that the only way to stop cheating in the A.I. era is to instill moral values that make students not want to cheat. But another way to address A.I.-based cheating is to recognize that A.I. is a tool and allow students to use it to complete exams and assignments. Before A.I., some take-home exams were open book, allowing students to draw on reference material as they saw fit. Students who understood the material and knew how to use reference sources effectively would generally outperform less capable students. Similarly, students who understand the material are more likely to ask A.I. the right questions and to recognize and correct errors in its output. In my secondary education in the 1970s, electronic calculators were viewed much as A.I. is today. There were fears that students could simply punch buttons and get correct answers without understanding what they were doing. In hindsight, those fears were overblown. Consider Dr. Grant's example of a surgeon who cheated through medical school using A.I. I would welcome a surgeon who knows how to use A.I. to learn the latest techniques and who used it as a tool in medical school. I would not, however, attempt to be my own surgeon, regardless of how much A.I. I was allowed to use. Robert R. MooreDallas To the Editor: Adam Grant proposes focusing on 'moral identity' as a means of addressing the A.I.-fueled cheating epidemic in schools. I applaud this argument. As a lifelong teacher and scholar, though, I fear that the solution has a snowflake's chance of working. Moral behavior depends greatly on the behavior of others in the same environment. I witnessed isolated incidents of cheating among my peers in high school and college, and I never felt tempted to copy their choices because they were so isolated. I thought of myself as a good person. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.