Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming classrooms worldwide, as pupils adopt AI chatbots as a powerful research tool, and educators use the technology to deliver engaging lessons and cut their administrative workload. But, as generative AI makes it ever easier to create convincing prose based on simple prompts, experts warn that some students may use it as a shortcut for writing notes and essays — compromising their learning and creating a cheating epidemic.

A 2023 study by edtech company RM Technology has already found that two thirds (67 per cent) of secondary school students admit to using chatbots such as ChatGPT for writing essays or doing work for them. They also said they were using AI for solving numerical problems (42 per cent), drafting English essays (41 per cent), translating text into different languages (25 per cent), writing poems (24 per cent), completing physics work (20 per cent), brainstorming history essay topics (18 per cent), creating art (18 per cent), and taking science tests (18 per cent).

Two-thirds of respondents in the RM Technology study also said AI usage has improved their grades.