--- title: "Researchers Reveal That Paper About Academic Cheating Was Generated Using ChatGPT" description: "Big Oops In an effort to raise alarm bells about how easy it might be for student to use AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT to cheat, a group of professors from England's Plymouth Marjon University (PMU) decided to submit a research paper written entirely by ChatGPT for peer-review to test whether secretly bot-penned \"research\" could slip through […]" date: "2023-03-21" modified: "2023-03-21" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/paper-passed-peer-review-generated-chatgpt" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "academia" - "ai" - "chatgpt" - "the digest" --- # Researchers Reveal That Paper About Academic Cheating Was Generated Using ChatGPT ![A peer-review process accepted a research paper written entirely by OpenAI's ChatGPT — without ever realizing that an AI program penned the paper.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Big Oops In an effort to raise alarm bells about how chatbots can enable academic misconduct, a group of professors from England's Plymouth Marjon University (PMU) submitted a [research paper]() written entirely by ChatGPT for peer-review to test whether secretly bot-penned "research" could slip through the process unnoticed. Put simply? It did. As [*The Guardian* reports](), the professors were able to successfully publish the paper, dubbed "Chatting and Cheating: Ensuring Academic Integrity in the Era of ChatGPT," under their own names, without ever revealing that the research was actually written by a machine — thwarting plagiarism-detecting software and fooling four human peer-reviewers in the process. "We wanted to show that ChatGPT is writing at a very high level," Debby Cotton, director of academic practice at PMU and the phony paper's fake lead author, told *The Guardian*. "This is an arms race," she added. "The technology is improving very fast and it's going to be difficult for universities to outrun it." ## Troubled Waters Ahead The fact that the phony paper was able to slip through the cracks undetected — indeed, the paper was only flagged once the PMU professors personally notified the journal's editors — is surely a stark warning to the academic system, which is [struggling to grapple]() with the breadth of [ChatGPT's impact on academia]() enough as it is. While there are some tips and tricks for deducing whether a human or a chatbot has likely written something — ChatGPT often makes up fake sources, for example — no existing plagiarism software can reliably flag AI-generated writing, nor can any of the [so-called AI-detecting programs]() that have emerged in the months since ChatGPT was first introduced. In other words, despite the fact that, as the *Guardian* reports, primary and secondary school systems have continued to re-up threats to penalize and even expel students for using the [robots to cheat](), the fact remains that it's still incredibly tricky to actually police this kind of cheating, especially on a broad scale. "My colleagues are already finding cases \[of AI-assisted cheating\] and dealing with them," Irene Glendinning, head of academic integrity at Coventry University in England, told the *Guardian.* "We don't know how many we are missing," she added, "but we are picking up cases." **READ MORE:** [*AI makes plagiarism harder to detect, argue academics – in paper written by chatbot*]() \[*The Guardian*\] **More on ChatGPT:** [*ChatGPT Is Hilariously Bad at Generating Random Numbers*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()