UK universities have faced a rapid increase in cases of generative AI being used for academic fraud — nearly seven thousand proven violations related to tools like ChatGPT were recorded just in the last academic year. This amounts to more than five cases per thousand students, and preliminary data indicates further growth of this figure. In contrast, traditional plagiarism is showing a noticeable decline: while it previously accounted for two-thirds of all violations, its share is now significantly decreasing.
Experts emphasize that the actual number of students abusing AI is much higher than the official statistics suggest. Many universities still do not categorize AI abuse as a separate violation, and modern technologies allow for easy circumvention of standard systems for detecting suspicious texts.
Among students, the use of AI has become commonplace — according to surveys, most of them use such tools for generating ideas, structuring assignments, or finding sources, rather than directly copying ready-made texts. These services are particularly popular among young people with special educational needs, as they help organize thoughts and improve the formatting of work.
Tech giants are actively engaging the student audience — Google offers university students free access to Gemini, and OpenAI provides discounts for college students in the US and Canada.
