Artificial intelligence is already revolutionising the way we work, commute and communicate.
Now, it looks set to change the way we study.
A Victoria University of Wellington lecturer has successfully trained an algorithm, to write an essay, that would scrape a pass mark.
Grant Otsuki fed 188 student essays into an computer programme, freely downloaded online, and successfully told the computer to write a new one, in around 40 minutes.
While the finished product needed some tweaking, Mr Otsuki said he was surprised by the quality.
"It's actually a really easy thing to proofread,” he said.
The essay had fabricated references, and even followed a basic structure.
“You can delete a bit or replace a few words or feed it something else to generate a text from and then you can end up with something pretty good."
Here’s a short segment from the finished product, an essay on Keith Basso’s book Wisdom Sits in Places, which focuses on the Western Apache people in Arizona.
“The place-names seem to conjure up possible futures that the Apache had for themselves, similar to the way the past is always present but always remembered.
"The stories seem to sum up the knowledge that their ancestors acquired. They help people to understand their current position in life as well as the possibilities of how their ancestors perceive their current position in life.”
Mr Otsuki said this is a sign that universities across New Zealand need to make sure they’re on top of the latest digital advancements.
"I realised that if I could do it this easily, then it's probably not a long time until a clever student picks up on this and starts using it as well."
Universities New Zealand told 1 NEWS that while cheating via artificial intelligence is on its radar, the technology is still in its early stages.
Chief Executive of Universities New Zealand Chris Whelan said there are plans to crack down on phoney essays, written by machines, in the future.
"The idea is to not rely on simply just one form of assessment because there are risks around that, the goal is to be able to test knowledge and develop it at the same time.”
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