The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is going through one of the most delicate moments in its history. The reason: the results of more than 158,000 admission exams are under investigation to determine whether there was massive abuse of AI in the answers.
According to the institution, the procedure has forced the registration process to be suspended.
Suspicions of the use of AI arose after the results of the exam carried out between May and June were published. Curiously, applicants and social media users began to point out that grades, unlike previous years, were unusually high in high-demand careers, such as Medicine and Law.
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What happened with the admission exam?
For the first time, UNAM applied its online entrance exam this year with the aim of facilitating the participation of students from different regions of Mexico and abroad.
To guarantee the transparency of the process, reports La Nación, the university previously assured that the system was supported by artificial intelligence to detect irregularities during the evaluation.
Before the start of the test, the institution explained: “The system that was used to administer the exams is based on artificial intelligence, a tool that allows capturing and recording any behavior and action carried out by each applicant throughout their exam, which makes it a strategic support for the human monitoring that was implemented during all exam days.”
However, after analyzing the results, the authorities detected patterns considered atypical. Higher Education Undersecretary Ricardo Villanueva noted that the unusual grades could be related to both the virtual format and the characteristics of the questions used in the evaluation.
Why is UNAM facing a crisis?
The magnitude of the problem lies in the fact that the university must now decide the future of 158,712 young people who took the exam to compete for around 21,962 places available through this entry modality.
In response, the institution formed a technical committee made up of 16 academics, in charge of reviewing the conditions under which the test was developed and determining whether there was widespread use of artificial intelligence or other forms of fraud.
During the installation of the committee, the rector Leonardo Lomelí was emphatic when pointing out: “We cannot allow access to the university to be affected by those applicants who could have had some type of help, to the detriment of the applicants who studied, prepared and sought the opportunity to access higher education in the entrance exam.”
The university also confirmed that it canceled around 2% of the exams (about 3,000) for detecting "conduct contrary to those established in the call", although it did not specify what irregularities were found.
Some candidates have already called demonstrations to demand a new in-person evaluation. On social networks there are also divided positions: some support repeating the entire test and others support that the research should be enough.
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