China Temporarily Shuts Down AI Apps to Stop Cheating During National Exams

One of the biggest concerns in education right now is how students are using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to cheat their way through projects. But it’s not just US students; China is shutting down certain AI features during important exam periods.

As Bloomberg reports, China’s popular AI apps will prevent photo-recognition features from working when they recognize a document that looks like an exam paper.

Tools like Alibaba’s Qwen, ByteDance’s Doubao, DeepSeek, Moonshot’s Kimi, and Tencent’s Yuanbao have been temporarily frozen during exam hours. In China, if you ask these tools why the features aren’t available, they’ll respond in various ways to say the features are shut down to ensure fairness during exams.

China’s gaokao exam, also referred to as the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE), is a multi-day process that millions of students go through to try to earn a place at college. It runs until June 10, when it’s expected that all the AI tools will reactivate image-recognition features.

We’ve yet to see similar efforts to prevent cheating during exam periods in the United States. That would prove more difficult than in China, where the government has more control over these things. There are also no centralized exams for US high school students, save for the SATs or ACTs, neither of which is administered by the US government.

However, AI will be used during the gaokao exams to monitor for cheating. According to China Daily, the tech will look for behavior like whispering or repeated glancing at a neighbor’s paper. The report says footage flagged by AI will then be reviewed after the exam is completed.

In the US, the White House has recently said it wants to promote AI tools in education. A somewhat vague executive order from April reads, “It is the policy of the United States to promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans by promoting the appropriate integration of AI into education, providing comprehensive AI training for educators, and fostering early exposure to AI concepts and technology to develop an AI-ready workforce and the next generation of American AI innovators.”

About James Peckham

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I’ve written tech news for over a decade, and as a Reporter at PCMag, I cover the latest developments across the gadgets and services you use every day. Previously, I worked for Android Police, TechRadar, and more.

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