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Sunday, June 21, 2026

Inside college AI cheating wars: extreme surveillance, false accusations, jarring confusion - Los Angeles Times

  • In one UCLA professor’s classes, students say they took finals on camera with mirrors behind them and arms crossed or hands behind their heads under strict anti-AI rules.
  • As AI takes hold, faculty and students are clashing over inconsistent policies and AI-use accusations.
  • Some students voluntarily document every draft — a sign of deepening mistrust between instructors and their classes.

A cheating crisis is growing at American universities as AI rapidly becomes embedded in learning: Extreme and uneven classroom practices are in force to prevent deception, false accusations against students are increasing and the definition of what it means to cheat is shifting, professors, students and specialists in academic integrity say.

At UCLA, students in a recent sociology class said they were told in an email to “procure a mirror large enough to fully reflect your entire desk-area work space,” and turn on their laptop camera so the professor could watch them during an online test. In another course, students said they had to take their oral video exam with their arms crossed in front of them or behind their heads so they couldn’t type into AI platforms.



Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMivwFBVV95cUxNaUhRcm90N2huS3EwNFJLVkpF...