Steve Hanke, who has been a teacher at Johns Hopkins University for almost 60 years says that he is fine students using AI to cheat, because he can easily …

Steve Hanke, who has taught applied economics at Johns Hopkins University for nearly 60 years, recently told Business Insider that he has “absolutely no problem with AI and students.” Hanke, who also served on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, described himself as an “old fox” who finds it “very easy” to differentiate between student work and chatbot-generated output. Hanke noted that what he sees as the poor writing skills of today’s students, even at elite universities, as one of the main reason AI subscribers stand out. It’s blatant when a student submission has been generated by AI,” he said, adding that his familiarity with students’ knowledge of economics makes it “pretty easy to spot” when work doesn’t match their skill level.“The only problem that AI poses is that it requires the old fox to be on guard, more than would have been the case sans AI,” Hanke explained. He emphasized that vigilance is the key to catching AI misuse in academic work.

A former Ivy League admissions dean agrees to Steve Hanke

Drusilla Blackman, a former dean of admissions at both Harvard and Columbia, echoed Hanke’s assessment in a separate interview with Business Insider. Blackman said it’s almost always evident to an educator when a student has used AI, since the submitted work tends not to match that student’s typical standard of writing or critical thinking. She said work that is clearly disproportionate to what a student would normally produce is detectable. Blackman is the founder of Deans of Admissions, a group that advises families on getting their children into top universities in the US and Britain.

How some teachers are responding

Beyond simply detecting AI-generated submissions after the fact, Business Insider reported last year that several teachers had begun taking a more defensive approach, redesigning assignments specifically to resist AI use, and in some cases returning to handwritten assignments altogether to discourage students from relying on chatbots in the first place.