Educators Braced for Cheating. Generative AI Surprised Them In Other Ways

August 28, 2026

The use of generative AI in education is now almost four years old. The tool that promised to end the take home essay has become ordinary. The fears — of cheating, of the decline of writing abilities and of the erosion of critical thinking skill — look different up close.

But four years is a lot of time to adapt.

Schools have done so in a variety of ways, from outright bans to requirements for disclosure.

“In some cases, we create highly complex assignments that cannot be solved in a viable time without AI,” said IEEE Member Marcos Simplicio. “That forces students to use generative AI tools, and learn how to use them to accelerate some tasks.”

We asked several educators to tell us what has surprised them most about generative AI over the last few years.

A Push to Grade the Process, Not the Answer

There’s been an acknowledgement that this technology can’t be kept at a distance. More and more courses require students to indicate which parts of their code or reports were assisted by AI, and to explain how those parts work and where their boundaries of applicability lie. What truly needs to be upgraded is the method of evaluation. When AI can easily provide standard answers, the focus of education naturally needs to return to examining how students ask questions, how they verify information and how they defend their conclusions, rather than merely testing memorization and repetition. – IEEE Senior Member Jing Dong

A New Recognition of Human Value

The biggest surprise is that generative AI may have made the human side of education more important. Generative AI enables information and basic writing to generate much easier than before while the valuable parts of education increasingly become asking good questions, exercising judgment, developing original ideas, communicating with other people and knowing what is worth thinking about in the first place. – IEEE Fellow Houbing Herbert Song

The High Cost of Shortcuts

The anxieties have inverted very quickly. At first we were concerned with cheating. I’ve been struck by how much students themselves are conflicted about it. Many will tell you candidly that they know the shortcut costs them something, but the incentive structures of grading push them toward it anyway, especially in competitive environments. That suggests that the problem is less the technology than the assessment systems with which they are colliding. – IEEE Senior Member Eleanor Watson

Young Students Are Circumventing Limits

The widespread adoption of AI among children surprised me the most — particularly the ease with which they ask clever questions to circumvent rules and outsmart teachers, demonstrating a level of creative and cognitive capability that adults often lack. While this highlights the immense potential for AI development among the younger generation, regulation is essential to ensure its use is intelligent and does not harm their health. – IEEE Senior Member Cristiane Pimentel

Go Deeper: Want to join the conversation on the impacts of AI in education? Check out the IEEE Education Society. From publications to conferences, to contributions on emerging standards, its members are defining the future.