Q: Did a robot help your A-level child to cheat?

A: No! Says A-level exam board chief Jill Duffy – we have nothing to fear from AI in the classroom

As A-level students celebrate their exam results, they deserve praise for navigating so many distractions, and bringing their best to the exam hall (PA Wire)

We now know what it’s like to sit exams in the age of generative AI. As it turns out, it isn’t so different from the pre-ChatGPT era. You cannot summon an AI chatbot to an exam hall to take an exam for you (not yet, at least). Students are still equipped only with a pen and their own wits.

That’s right: despite horror stories about students sitting back and letting HAL 9000 do all the hard work for them, exam boards faced relatively few cases of alleged malpractice involving AI this year. Most students appear to agree, with many saying that ChatGPT makes no difference to GCSE and A-level exams, according to a survey from The Student Room.

If anything, the rise of AI over the past few years has only reinforced the value of in-person and human-supervised exams. They are still the best protection against cheating. They put students on a level playing field. They allow students to show what they know and what they can do.