What’s the story
China’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, including Alibaba’s Qwen and Tencent’s Yuanbao, have temporarily disabled some of their functions.
The move comes as a measure to prevent cheating during the country’s annual “gaokao” college entrance examinations.
The multi-day tests are being conducted nationwide with an estimated 13.4 million students taking part this year.
Importance of gaokao in China
The gaokao is a rite of passage for Chinese teenagers and is believed to shape the futures of millions.
Students and their parents go to great lengths for any edge they can get, including private tuition or even cheating attempts.
To minimize disruption, examiners prohibit the use of devices during these hours-long tests.
What Qwen and Doubao said
As of Monday, Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao AI platforms still supported photo recognition features.
However, when prompted to answer a question based on an image of a test paper, Qwen responded that its services were temporarily disabled during the exam period from June 7 to 10.
Doubao declined to process the image, stating that the uploaded content did not comply with its platform rules.
Difference between gaokao and US college entrance exam
Unlike the US’s university application process, China doesn’t have a standardized system where students demonstrate their qualifications through years of academic records, standardized tests, and personal essays.
For Chinese high-school seniors, the gaokao is often their only chance to impress admissions officials.
It is especially important for those from smaller cities and lower-income families who lack resources.
China’s education ministry on AI in education
The fast development of AI has presented new challenges for schools and regulators in China.
Last month, the education ministry issued a set of regulations saying that while schools should start cultivating artificial intelligence talent at a young age, students shouldn’t use AI-generated content as answers in homework and tests.
This is part of an effort to ensure fairness and integrity in the education system amid rapid technological advancements.