With the help of artificial intelligence, the chatbot ChatGPT can both reason and produce long texts in a short time. The texts are not searchable and the technology has received a lot of attention in schools because it opens up more opportunities for cheating.
"Just last week I have found five students who have used ChatGPT," says Shermake Guled, teacher at Nils Erikssongymnasiet in Trollhättan, where teachers from different schools have met to discuss AI development.
"The chatbot has so much muscle"
The problem is relevant ahead of this spring's national test, where the upper secondary school students will write speeches at home that they then perform at school. This is despite the fact that the Swedish National Agency for Education advises against using assignments done at home as a basis for grading.
"It becomes contradictory that these results should carry more weight. I don't know where it comes from," says Henrik Birkebo, teacher at Magnus Åbergsgymnasiet in Trollhättan.
He admits that the risk of someone else writing the speech, or other homework assignments, has always existed.
"What makes it extra important now is that this chatbot has so much muscle," he says.
The National Agency for Education wants to see change
This autumn, the Swedish National Agency for Education will change its guidelines for the oral part of the tests. As for the speech, the presentation should carry more weight than before, compared to the speaker's speech written at home.
"Reweighting may not solve the problem completely. The fact that the student has to prepare the speech at home is of course a weakness, says Anders Boman, Head of Unit at the National Agency for Education.
The goal going forward is to get away from grade-based elements that are prepared at home.
Why do you not adapt more quickly, because technological development is faster?
"A national test takes two years to take and will have time to be tested on hundreds of students. Then you end up discussing whether it is worth taking the test. I mean it is, but I'm not brushing aside the problem," says Boman.
In the clip, teachers talk about how they try to prevent cheating.