Former OpenAI researcher: Schools, ditch AI homework detection, shift grading back into the classroom in the AI age
The Rundown | November 28 2025: Former OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy just urged educators to abandon efforts to catch AI-generated homework, arguing detection tools are broken, and that grading needs to shift back into the classroom in the AI age. The details:
The details:
- Karpathy said educators will “never be able to detect” the use of AI in homework, and that detectors “don’t work” and are “doomed to fail”.
- He cited Google’s Nano Banana Pro, showcasing how it can complete exam problems correctly while mimicking students’ handwriting.
- Karpathy proposed moving graded work to in-school settings over take-home assignments, while embracing AI as a learning companion outside of school.
- He said education’s goal in the AI age should be for students to be “proficient in the use of AI” but also able to “exist without it”.
Why it matters: AI has accelerated much faster than schools can prepare for, turning the entire education system on its head without a clear roadmap for how to navigate the changes. With mixed opinions of the tech and implementations varying massively, it’s going to take a major effort to rewire schools for a generation growing up with AI.
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A number of people are talking about implications of AI to schools. I spoke about some of my thoughts to a school board earlier, some highlights: 1. You will never be able to detect the use of AI in homework. Full stop. All "detectors" of AI imo don't really work, can be defeated in various ways, and are in principle doomed to fail. You have to assume that any work done outside classroom has used AI. 2. Therefore, the majority of grading has to shift to in-class work (instead of at-home assignments), in settings where teachers can physically monitor students. The students remain motivated to learn how to solve problems without AI because they know they will be evaluated without it in class later. 3. We want students to be able to use AI, it is here to stay and it is extremely powerful, but we also don't want students to be naked in the world without it. Using the calculator as an example of a historically disruptive technology, school teaches you how to do all the basic math & arithmetic so that you can in principle do it by hand, even if calculators are pervasive and greatly speed up work in practical settings. In addition, you understand what it's doing for you, so should it give you a wrong answer (e.g. you mistyped "prompt"), you should be able to notice it, gut check it, verify it in some other way, etc. The verification ability is especially important in the case of AI, which is presently a lot more fallible in a great variety of ways compared to calculators. 4. A lot of the evaluation settings remain at teacher's discretion and involve a creative design space of no tools, cheatsheets, open book, provided AI responses, direct internet/AI access, etc. TLDR the goal is that the students are proficient in the use of AI, but can also exist without it, and imo the only way to get there is to flip classes around and move the majority of testing to in class settings.
