Brown University Professor Sees Grades Plummet When AI Is Banned from Exams

Jul 12, 2026

An economics professor at Brown University observed that students averaged 96 percent on a take-home exam, likely due to AI use. When the final was administered in person without AI, 18 students dropped the course, nine did not attend, and the average score dropped to 48.6 percent. Two large studies from China and UC Berkeley similarly found that reliance on AI for homework correlates with lower scores on proctored exams.

Why it matters: This case underscores concerns that unmonitored AI use may undermine academic integrity and genuine learning.

Full story at: The Decoder ↗