Entry 12: The “Anti-Doping” Perspective on AI

Date: June 17, 2025

Quotation: “If you normalize AI doping, the result is an arms race—for students and against learning.”
Reference:
Akbari, N. (2024, February 28). The AI Cheating Crisis: Education Needs Its Anti-Doping Movement. Education Week.
https://www.edweek.org/technology/opinion-the-ai-cheating-crisis-education-needs-its-anti-doping-movement/2024/02?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Why I Included This:
 

This metaphor of AI as “doping” stayed with me long after I finished reading. It framed the issue of academic dishonesty in a way that was physical, public, and irreversible. Just like doping in sports, it’s not only about the individual who cheats it’s about what gets lost across the system. The credibility of the process, the value of the effort, and the meaning of the results.

This pushed me to reflect on what kind of assessments might actually tempt learners toward shortcuts. It made me think about pressure. When tasks feel like high-stakes hoops to jump through, students will look for faster ways to clear them. In that sense, the environment contributes to the outcome.

I saw this tension come up in the Module 3 forum. One peer highlighted that students may not use AI just to cheat, but because they feel overwhelmed, unsure, or discouraged. That comment helped me shift from blame to empathy. It’s not just about catching dishonest behavior. It’s about creating conditions that make integrity feel possible.

Looking ahead, I want to design assessments that have more space for uncertainty and voice. Assignments where students can express how they arrived at an idea, what they struggled with, and what they still wonder about. That kind of thinking is hard to fake and more importantly, it’s worth doing.

This entry builds on earlier reflections, especially Entry 1 on equity and Entry 9 on critical data literacy. If AI is changing what students can do, then my role as an educator has to evolve too. Not to control it, but to make sure that what we ask students to learn still feels meaningful. That’s what academic integrity means to me now.