Invigilation in the Age of AI

The following is a fable in the form of a dialogue. No large language model was used in creating it. 

“‘The Economic Influence of the Developments in Shipbuilding Techniques, 1450 to 1485.’ Is this your own work, Mr. Dixon?” 

“Yes, Professor.” 

“You wrote it yourself? All 5,000 or so words?” 

“Yes.” 

“I’m sure you know the university’s rules. You’re allowed to use the internet in your research, but if you quote sources you have to credit them. Even if you paraphrase them, as it were, you have to say where you found what you’re paraphrasing and who wrote the original version. You’re aware of that, aren’t you?”

“Yes, of course.” 

“And you must never use artificial intelligence to do your writing for you. The writing has to be your own, not Claude’s or Gemini’s or some other chatbot’s. Did I mention that? You aren’t permitted to use AI to make a first draft, then go over it and just change a word here and there.” 

“I used a spell checker. That’s acceptable, isn’t it?” 

“Yes. So is a grammar checker. But a paragraph generator isn’t. Is that understood, Mr. Dixon?” 

“Yes, Professor.” 

“Then we can get down to business. I’ve marked 10 sentences in your paper. Each of them is about something you probably didn’t know before writing the paper. I’ll read them to you and ask you questions about them. Like, ‘what does this mean?’ or ‘what country is this person from’ or ‘what trade did this company engage in?’ Is that clear?” 

“Yes, Professor.” 

“Since you’re thoroughly familiar with the sources you cite, you should have no trouble answering the questions without consulting your paper or your notes. Let’s see. Is there something else? Oh yes. I’m going to have to give you a grade based on your answers. Ten right is an A, nine right is a B, eight is a C, seven is a D, and anything below that is an F. Is that clear?” 

“Yes.” 

“Splendid! Then let’s begin. First question: You wrote ‘Of Columbus’ three ships, the Niña and Pinta were caravels; the Santa Maria was a carrack.’ What’s the difference between a caravel and a carrack?” 

The moral of the fable could be that this is one way to uncover AI cheating. Or it could be saying that personal interaction between docent and disciple is the best way to teach effectively. Some background: The title of Dixon’s paper is taken verbatim from Kingsley Amis’ first and most famous novel, Lucky Jim, published in 1954. Jim Dixon, the central character, is a harassed junior lecturer at a redbrick university, not a student as in this fable. His boss, Professor Welch, is responsible for much of the harassment. As portrayed by Amis, Dixon’s adherence to academic norms is not overly devout. If he had had access to AI, he might have used it in writing the paper and consequently have been unable to answer Welch’s question. But in view of his unscholarliness, he might have been unable to answer the question even if he never used AI. In the novel, in a twist that would be doubly ironic in the Age of AI, Dixon himself falls victim to a plagiarist. 

Amis was a visiting fellow in creative writing at Princeton in 1958-59. His 1963 campus novel, One Fat Englishman, is set in “Budweiser College,” modeled on Princeton.