On Campus, More AI Use Means More Cheating. Across Majors, It Means Less

InnovationScienceOn Campus, More AI Use Means More Cheating. Across Majors, It Means LessByJohn Drake,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. John Drake is a professor at the University of Georgia. Follow AuthorMay 25, 2026, 04:30pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This illustration photograph taken on October 30, 2023, shows the logo of ChatGPT, a language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI, on a smartphone in Mulhouse, eastern France. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP) (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesA new analysis in Science puts a number on a question that has worried university faculty since ChatGPT arrived: how many students cheat with generative AI? Drawing on 95,513 students at a representative sample of twenty major public research universities, the authors estimate that about 9% of students who use these tools have turned in AI-generated work they knew might not be allowed. They are careful to note that 9% is lower than many accounts of AI normalizing cheating at scale.Two things make the result more interesting than the number itself: how the authors arrived at it, and what happens when you break it down by field, where AI use and cheating run one way across disciplines and the opposite way across students.How Do You Count Cheaters Who Won’t Admit It?Any cheating statistic invites the obvious objection that students lie about cheating, and the authors built their estimate to sidestep it.Rather than ask anyone to confess, they used a list experiment. Students were split at random into two groups. One saw three harmless statements about AI use, such as having explained ChatGPT to a classmate, and reported only how many were true for them. The other saw those three plus a fourth, that they had submitted AI work as their own knowing it might not be allowed, and again reported only the count. B...