Artificial intelligence (AI) models can achieve better average grades in university writing assignments than real-life students, a new report has suggested.
The research, published in Scientific Reports, found ChatGPT matched or exceeded the efforts of students when answering assessment questions in subjects including computer science, political studies, engineering, and psychology.
It also found almost three-quarters of students surveyed (74%) would use ChatGPT to help with their assignments, despite 70% of educators viewing it as plagiarism.
ChatGPT – a chatbot that can provide detailed prose responses and engage in human-like conversations using prompts – burst into the public consciousness following its release in November last year.
In the research, faculty members on 32 courses at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) provided three student submissions each for 10 assessment questions.
ChatGPT was also asked to produce three sets of answers to the 10 questions, which were then assessed alongside the students’ responses by three blind graders.
The findings showed ChatGPT-generated answers achieved a similar or higher average grade than students in 12 of the 32 courses, with maths and economics the only two disciplines where students consistently outperformed AI.
The gap in performance between ChatGPT and students was much smaller on questions requiring high levels of knowledge and cognitive process, compared to those requiring intermediate levels.
