With the rise of DeepSeek in China, the situation where university students use AI tools to assist in writing papers has become increasingly common, raising concerns about academic misconduct such as using AI to forge research data.
According to a report from CCTV, AI tools have become a “magic tool” for many university students to complete reports and papers after their rise. Compared to reading through heavy books or using internet search engines to find information, using AI to write papers has become a “shortcut”.
A survey conducted by the third-party organization “Michael’s” among more than 3,000 university teachers and students showed that nearly 60% of them use generative AI tools daily or several times a week. And among university students who use AI, nearly 30% use it mainly for writing papers or assignments.
A student at Beijing Technology and Business University confessed that sometimes when time is tight, they just directly copy and paste the content generated by AI. Some students have said they have become “accustomed to completing tasks with the help of AI” and have become dependent on AI. There are even reports of primary and secondary students using AI to do their homework. This issue has recently received widespread attention.
Experts warn that information obtained from AI tools may have deficiencies in terms of authenticity and accuracy. Over-reliance on AI may, to some extent, lead to cognitive inertia and inhibit the development of creativity.
In addition to using generative artificial intelligence tools to automatically generate papers, there are also cases of academic misconduct among some students, such as using AI to forge research data, manipulate experimental images, or replace original designs.
In order to prevent the misuse of AI in university education, recently, many universities including Fudan University have introduced regulations on the use of AI tools, limiting their scope. In case of serious violations, papers may be deemed unqualified. Since last year, Tianjin University of Science and Technology has required all undergraduate theses to undergo intelligent content detection for smart-generated content, with the requirement that the proportion of smart-generated content in student theses not exceed 40%. Moreover, universities such as Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Communication University of China, North China Electric Power University, Hubei University, Fuzhou University, and Nanjing Tech University are either experimenting with or introducing relevant regulations or measures to regulate students’ use of AI in writing papers.
To prevent academic fraud, multiple teams are currently conducting research on AI paper anti-identification detection.