Academic Illusion: Everyone Cheats, No One Cares
This isn’t speculation. It’s the new academic standard. ChatGPT is everywhere, in essays, assignments, summaries, even code. No one hides it anymore. Students use it without hesitation. Professors know. Universities know. But they look the other way. Changing the rules is too complex. And collecting tuition is just too easy.
The result? University becomes an empty ritual. A place where thinking is no longer required, just knowing how to write prompts. Where writing no longer means thinking, it means delegating. Where learning is optional, but graduating is guaranteed.
And let’s be clear. This isn’t just a moral issue. It’s cultural. Cognitive. Generational. Because writing is thinking. It’s struggling with words to clarify your ideas. It’s making mistakes, rewriting, learning. If a machine does all that for you, we haven’t just automated a task. We’ve erased a process. A part of human awareness.
The paradox? AI could help. It could support those who struggle, simplify content, close educational gaps. But without limits, it does the opposite. It turns knowledge into an illusion. It makes you feel like you understand when you’ve only read. It makes you feel competent when you’re just assisted. It skips the very steps you were meant to learn from.
Many professors are exhausted. Some are returning to oral exams. Others require handwritten work. But those are just patches. The problem runs deeper. It strikes at the very meaning of education. Because if university no longer asks you to think, it’s no longer teaching you anything.
We need a clear, structural response.
We need to redefine what evaluation means. Fewer standard assignments, more real interaction, more personalized learning. We need to teach AI, but also how to use it without being replaced by it. We need to support educators with tools, training, and resources, not leave them to handle it alone. And we need governance that doesn’t protect the system but transforms it.
Above all, we need a political decision. Do we still want a university that helps people grow, or are we fine with a diploma industry run on voice commands?
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Marco Camisani Calzolari
marcocamisanicalzolari.com/biography