What the panic about kids using AI to cheat gets wrong

For anyone scrolling quickly through their news feeds, it is easy to believe that all students are now using AI to cheat in school. Whether in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, the words “cheat” and “AI” seem to appear together with alarming frequency. The typical story is similar to a recent New York magazine feature in which a college student openly admits to using generative AI to “to cheat on nearly every assignment.” With so many news headlines and anecdotes like these circulating, it feels like the rug is being pulled out from beneath the educational system. The e