All Chegg has going for it is a database of answers for homework assignments that typically use per-student randomized numbers—so students have to recalculate their specific answer manually by following the steps—and "verified tutors" that constantly give wrong answers to even highschool-level math questions.
Every college student I know uses ChatGPT (and now DeepSeek) for tons of assignments, usually via the free plan.
Once you experience that, it gets really tempting to cancel that $20/month chegg subscription and never look back.
I find professors pitiful fearmongering over 'the big bad ChatGPT' a little funny, such as when they insist they "have secret tools to detect AI usage" and "it can't answer the questions correctly anyway", so "you shouldn't even try it".
I think the issue is when people start replacing their capacity to think and reason with these machines. There was an intergalactic space jihad about this IIRC.
I also recommend the written story for Zima Blue (the Love Death and Robots version was much more focused on the artistic aspect) and the question of wine.
Interestingly, went to do a search for "Zima Blue", and because the sidebar decided I wanted information about the tv episode, it gave me a Spanish Wikipedia link (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zima_Blue). The equivalent page in English Wikipedia redirects to "Zima Blue and Other Stories", instead.
Zima Blue is the name of the story. It was made into a Love Death and Robots episode. The book Zima Blue and Other Stories is the most widely known collection that its found in (since its in the title), but it has been published in many others.
In the story, wine is one of the topics of conversation between Carrie and Zima. The first mention of it - and the question - "Red or white?"
Zima indicated that I should take one of the seats. His hand dithered over two bottles of wine.
‘Red or white, Carrie?’
I opened my mouth as if to answer him, but nothing came. Normally, in that instant between the question and the response, the AM would have silently directed my choice to one of the two options. Not having the AM’s prompt felt like a mental stall in my thoughts.
‘Red, I think,’ Zima said. ‘Unless you have strong objections.’
‘It’s not that I can’t decide these things for myself,’ I said.
Zima poured me a glass of red, then held it up to the sky to inspect its clarity. ‘Of course not,’ he said.
The use of wine and the decision is one that goes through the entire story and plays a role at the conclusion.
The "AM" is the Aide Memoire. It is a small robot resembling a hummingbird in size that accompanies people and is an assistant for remembering things for humans who have a lifespan of hundreds of years.
I strongly recommend the story - it is so different from the animated version.
Good luck with that, academic cheating is a massive market.
No matter the crackdown, the demand is always so high that someone will inevitably find a way to market services (such as Chegg or essay-for-hire services).
The best counter against it is designing courses so that cheaters get minimal benefit while students that study get rewarded (such as closed note exams and lowering the value of homework assignments).
Otherwise, whether it's ChatGPT, Chegg, or paying a friend who took the course last semester for their homework solutions, there's no real stopping it.
I get that this may happen for an arts degree, or something like that, it's wrong on a moral level, slap on the wrist no biggie.
But if we are talking physicians or lawyers, it becomes a criminal matter for me.
Computer science I feel is on a gray area, and Engineering in the US doesn't have the same protections as it does in other countries.
I'm starting to think we'll have to license computer programming in the following decade, there's so many quacks and shit software going around, something is gonna go horribly wrong.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialInteligence/comments/1cwq...