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On October 23, 2026, UC Berkeley professor and Fields Medalist Richard Borcherds stopped grading students' assignments as right or wrong. The reason he gave is that a large number of students use AI to reliably obtain high scores, and he believes that paying people to grade for correctness has "no meaning" anymore; currently he only grades based on whether the assignment was submitted. The same report also mentioned that he said if AI continues to improve at the current rate, within a few years there will be nothing left that human mathematicians can do better than AI, and he can no longer offer advice on whether students should even be encouraged to enter mathematics departments. At present, this statement appears only in one representative report, and there have been no subsequent developments.
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AI use leads UC Berkeley math professor to consider grading homework "meaningless"Developments
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Borcherds no longer marks student assignments right or wrong because students widely use AI
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Oct 23
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AI use leads UC Berkeley math professor to consider grading homework "meaningless"
UC Berkeley professor and Fields Medalist Richard Borcherds no longer grades student homework, because a large number of students use AI to consistently earn high scores; he believes that paying people to grade for correctness is now "meaningless," and currently grades only on whether work is submitted. He also stated that if AI continues to improve at its current pace, within a few years there will be nothing left that human mathematicians can do better than AI, and he can no longer offer advice even on whether students should be encouraged to enter the mathematics department.