Richard Borcherds, a mathematics professor at UC Berkeley, has stopped grading assignments because of the widespread use of AI. AI is becoming so effective that, he says, human mathematicians will not be able to compete with it in a few years.
Richard Borcherds, a mathematics professor at UC Berkeley and Fields Medal winner, has stopped grading schoolwork because of students' widespread use of AI. Borcherds believes AI is becoming so effective that, within a few years, human mathematicians will be unable to do anything that AI cannot do better. UC Berkeley has AI-use policies that vary by course, but there is no standardized policy for detecting AI use.
The university has already tested AI detection tools, such as Turnitin and Rumi, but found them insufficient to be standardized. UC Berkeley has a repository of AI-use statements for instructors to use in their syllabi, called the AI Hub. The news about the use of AI in education is tied to a recent trend, but there is no specific date for Borcherds' decision.
The mathematics and AI laboratory at Tsinghua University, led by Qiu Chengtong, was founded on October 11, 2023. Richard Borcherds, a mathematics professor at UC Berkeley, decided to stop grading schoolwork after realizing that many students were using AI to get good grades. This reflects a growing trend in the use of AI in education, with debates about how this technology is transforming teaching and assessment. In China, meanwhile, there are efforts to integrate AI into mathematics and scientific research, with Qiu Chengtong's laboratory.
Borcherds' decision reflects a change in how education is adapting to technology. AI is becoming unavoidable in the grading of assignments, and Borcherds sees no alternative but to grade only whether assignments were turned in. UC Berkeley has no standardized AI detection policy, which may make it harder to assess students' work.
AI could surpass human mathematicians in a few years
Borcherds said that, if AI keeps improving at its current pace, in a few years there will be nothing human mathematicians can do better than AI. He also admitted that the current grading system, which relies only on whether assignments are turned in, is "not very good." But, he said, there is no other option for now. Artificial intelligence is redefining the grading of mathematics assignments. Teachers need to adapt their practices, but are limited to checking only whether work was turned in. The global trend of using AI in education includes laboratories such as the one at Tsinghua University, founded on October 11, 2023.
With information from dailycal.org and cnbeta.com.tw.
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