Recently, a course at Yonsei University in South Korea named "Natural Language Processing and ChatGPT" was embroiled in a large-scale cheating scandal, with hundreds of students suspected of using AI tools like ChatGPT during the midterm exam. According to the professor's statement, the grades of students caught cheating have been set to zero, but the exact number of affected students is unclear, with an initial estimate possibly exceeding half.

This course had a large number of enrolled students, approximately 600 in total, and was conducted online. The midterm exam took place on October 15 through an online platform, with multiple-choice questions as the format. To prevent cheating, the school required students to record their computer screens, hands, and facial images throughout the exam and submit the video footage after the exam. However, some students adjusted the camera angle to create blind spots in the monitoring or opened multiple windows on the screen to bypass the surveillance.

After detecting signs of cheating, the professor notified the students that those who admitted to cheating would only have their exam scores set to zero without facing any other penalties. This decision sparked widespread attention, especially highlighted by an anonymous survey on the social platform "Everytime," which showed that out of 353 students who participated in the vote, 190 admitted to cheating during the exam.

Notably, many students admitted to using ChatGPT during the exam. One student interviewed confessed, "During the exam, most of us relied on ChatGPT." Another student also said, "Many classmates, including me, used AI to look up answers."

Although the adoption of AI technology in South Korean universities is accelerating rapidly, most institutions still lack clear management regulations. According to a 2024 survey by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) among 726 students, 91.7% of respondents reported having used AI tools in their academic work; however, a survey by the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE) showed that 71.1% of 131 universities had not yet established any formal policies regarding generative AI.

This incident has once again raised concerns about academic integrity and educational policies. As AI technology continues to evolve, how to manage its application in academia in a reasonable and effective way has become an urgent issue for universities.