Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
Students at the University of Staffordshire have said they feel “robbed of knowledge and enjoyment” after a course they hoped would launch their digital careers turned out to be taught in large part by AI.
James and Owen were among 41 students who took a coding module at Staffordshire last year, hoping to change careers through a government-funded apprenticeship programme designed to help them become cybersecurity experts or software engineers.
But after a term of AI-generated slides being read, at times, by an AI voiceover, James said he had lost faith in the programme and the people running it, worrying he had “used up two years” of his life on a course that had been done “in the cheapest way possible”.
“If we handed in stuff that was AI-generated, we would be kicked out of the uni, but we’re being taught by an AI,” said James during a confrontation with his lecturer recorded as a part of the course in October 2024.
