China Halts AI Chatbots to Prevent Cheating on College Exams
To maintain the integrity of the rigorous gaokao college entrance exams, several prominent Chinese AI companies temporarily disabled key features of their chatbots. This preventative measure, driven by concerns about widespread cheating, affected image recognition capabilities in apps like Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao, and entirely suspended photo-recognition services in Tencent’s Yuanbao and Moonshot’s Kimi during the exam period. The move reflects a global challenge posed by AI to academic integrity, as evidenced by increased sales of paper test materials in the US. The temporary suspensions, confirmed by chatbot responses and social media reports, underscore the intense pressure surrounding the gaokao and the need to ensure fair competition for millions of students.
John Q. Hosedrinker