MIT report says AI can complete almost any undergraduate assignment it sets

An MIT committee report says AI can produce credible responses to almost any written assignment in its undergraduate curriculum and has driven measurable shifts in campus culture in under three years. In the EU, systems that monitor students during tests are high-risk under the AI Act and emotion recognition in education has been prohibited since February 2025.

MIT says artificial intelligence can now credibly complete almost any undergraduate assignment it sets. Its ad hoc AI committee published the finding this week, Futurism reported.

The list is not narrow. The report covers essays, maths and science problems, proofs and coding assignments, and says the models produce credible solutions across all of them.

The more interesting finding is not about cheating. In under three years the technology has driven what the committee describes as major shifts in campus culture.

Attendance at office hours is down. Participation in online discussions has fallen, and the report cites anecdotal evidence of fewer study groups in dorms and libraries. None of that is a cheating problem.

Other universities have already reacted. Chicago’s law school banned phones and laptops in first-year classes, and Princeton dropped an honour code more than a century old.

The direction of travel is supervision. If you cannot trust the work, you watch the person doing it, which is a very old answer to a new question.

That is where European law starts rather than ends. On this continent the watching is the regulated activity, not the cheating.

Universities were already using AI to catch cheating before any of this, and TNW called the practice creepy at the time.

The AI Act has a view on it. Education is one of the areas it singles out for the strictest treatment short of an outright prohibition.

Systems used for monitoring and detecting prohibited behaviour of students during tests are high-risk under Annex III, alongside admissions and the evaluation of learning outcomes.

Those obligations were due this month. The Digital Omnibus pushed them back to 2 December 2027, which buys institutions and their software suppliers another sixteen months.

The prohibitions were not pushed. Emotion recognition in education has been banned outright since February 2025, and the EU can inspect models and fine providers.

So the American argument is about whether to watch students at all. The European one was settled first, and it is about how closely.