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The booming use of generative AI by students is leading to rising grade inflation at universities, according to a working paper published this week by the University of California, Berkeley.
There are three ways generative AI can be used by students: augmentation, where the tools perform a supporting role assisting in things like research while the student completes the bulk of the work themselves; reinstatement of new AI-based tasks; or through displacement, where it completely automates the work that a student would otherwise perform themselves, such as writing an essay. All three use cases can improve grades, while only augmentation and reinstatement can further correlate with actual learning and skills building.
Some academic tasks, like unsupervised take-home assignments, essays, and other homework, are perfect opportunities for AI displacement, as opposed to proctored exams, oral presentations, or in-class discussions.
As part of the study, UC Berkeley senior researcher Igor Chirikov analyzed over 500,000 student-course enrollments across 84 departments at a large Texas university from 2018 to 2025. He found that grade increases were mostly concentrated in courses “with higher shares of writing and coding tasks,” where take-home assignments carried the most weight, concluding that students are using AI to cheat on some schoolwork and get better grades. Overall, the researchers found that “AI-exposed courses” saw a 30 percent increase in “A” grades since ChatGPT hit the market.
