--- title: "Brown University Professor Horrified to Discover Largest AI Cheating Scandal in Ivy League History" description: "Brown University professor Roberto Serrano says he has detected what appears to be the largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history." date: "2026-06-30" modified: "2026-06-30" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/brown-university-professor-cheating-scandal-ivy-league" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Brown University Professor Horrified to Discover Largest AI Cheating Scandal in Ivy League History ![A color-treated photograph of students taking an exam.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* Award winning economist and Brown University professor Roberto Serrano says he has detected what appears to be the largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history. As [Spanish newspaper *El País* reports](), Serrano noticed red flags as soon as he looked at the scores of a March midterm exam for one of the classes he teaches, an advanced undergrad course in mathematical economics. The take-home and closed-book exam — [an "Honor Code" type of test Ivy League schools are known for]() — resulted in 40 out of 86 students scoring a perfect 100. The average score was an equally questionable 96 out of 100. In other words, it's not a stretch to assume students gave in to the temptation to ask an AI chatbot for answers, particularly in the confines of their own homes without a teaching assistant looking over their shoulder. In Serrano's testing, that appeared to be the case. "Some answers contained unusual passages that coincided with results obtained after running the questions through ChatGPT," Serrano told *El País*. Perhaps most tellingly, the average score of an in-person final, which accounted for half of the final grade of the class, was an abysmal 48 out of 100. Of the 27 students who didn't even bother to show up for the test, 22 had scored a 100 during the midterm exam, providing plenty of credence to Serrano's theory. "The empirical evidence of fraud is overwhelming," he told the paper. The incident highlights just how pervasive the use of AI has become in the classroom. Even students at highly reputable Ivy League schools are resorting to the tools to cheaply score high grades — even when doing so directly contradicts an honor code they all swore to uphold. Compounding the concerning development, literacy and numeracy rates have taken a major hit over the last couple of years. College professors [warn that we're hitting a crisis point]() as incoming students barely have a middle-school level understanding of math and other subjects. Some professors are lamenting that they've quickly become "[plagiarism cops]()," whose main job it is to root out AI-facilitated cheating instead of actually teaching. It's a cat-and-mouse game greatly complicated by rapidly improving tech that's making cheating harder to spot. At the same time, experts warn that the use of the tools is [destroying their students' ability to think critically]() as they become hopelessly dependent on the tech. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Serrano has decided to stop giving take-home exams altogether. A similar story is playing out at other Ivy League schools. As [*The Atlantic* reported last month](), Princeton recently stopped a 133-year-old "Honor Code" tradition involving professors leaving the room when students, who sign a pledge not to cheat, take their final exams. Thanks to the dramatic uptick of AI use and academic dishonesty in the classroom, Princeton did away with the tradition altogether. "There’s an air of people cheating on take-homes and people just using ChatGPT," Princeton senior and former chair of the Honor Committee Nadia Makuc told *The Atlantic*. "As long as people think there is more cheating, it encourages more cheating." Beyond the loss of integrity, AI cheating is eroding the trust between students and educators, while the latter worry about the deteriorating value of a college degree. "If we no longer defend truth and decency and honesty, then what kind of credibility are we going to have as academics?" Serrano told *El País*. **More on AI cheating:** [*Princeton in Shambles Over AI Cheating*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()