Letters to the Editor: The answer to AI-assisted academic cheating? Good ol’ pencil and paper
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To the editor: So much of the hand-wringing at all levels over AI-assisted cheating misses the obvious solution: handwriting exams, papers and assignments (“His students suddenly started getting A’s. Did a Google AI tool go too far?,” Dec. 2).
For decades, students completed work for evaluation by handwriting it. Teachers and professors had to read and grade actual “papers” and handwritten tests.
I am not that old myself and I completed all of my college tests via handwritten work. I walked into my college exams with nothing but sharpened pencils and whatever I had crammed into my own head. I even took the California State Bar exam, at that time a full three-day, hand-cramping event, using paper and pen. Sure, accommodations can be made for people who need them, but those would be the exception.
Is it more difficult for professors and teachers to grade stacks of term papers, exams, etc.? Sure it is, and yet it’s somehow been accomplished for hundreds of years. And it’s a 100% guarantee that no AI is being used when all you bring to the test is a handful of pencils and your own brain.
David Williams, San Diego
