The ChatGPT era prompts a boom in A-graded coursework
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Some college classes are seeing a boom in students earning A's — many with the help of AI.
Why it matters: Universities and colleges were already concerned about how many students are earning A's and B's, but now must worry that graduates are leaving AI-proficient rather than knowledgeable about their subjects of study.
The big picture: It isn't a case where A- students get a slight bump to an A or A+, says Igor Chirikov, a UC Berkeley professor who authored a study on AI and grade inflation.
- "We have a C student who is now an A student," Chirikov tells Axios, citing data from grades given between 2018 and 2025 at a Texas research university.
What they found: Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, "excellent" grades rose by 30% in classes where AI is useful, such as English composition and coding.
- In classes where it's not — like sculpture and lab-based courses — grades remained flat.
Worth noting: Chirikov didn't name the university used in the study, but says that it's a "selective" school with over 50,000 students across all major academic disciplines.
- "I don't want to single out one university, just because I believe it's not specific to that particular university. It's something that's happening across the higher ed sector."
- He also says he chose the university because its grade distribution data is publicly available.
Zoom in: Excellent grades have been on the rise since the early 2000s, but Chirikov found that classes that place more weight on homework assignments than on in-class exams see higher rates of grade inflation.
- That pattern suggested that unsupervised work is getting an AI-assisted boost, he says.
- Another issue with the grading scale is that faculty are sometimes incentivized to "grade more leniently" as student evaluations of their work are often tied to a professor being promoted, Chirikov says.
Zoom out: There is no "silver bullet" to stop AI from inflating GPAs, nor is it a new concept that students have inflated GPAs, he says.
- "There are many cases when students can select easier courses and get easier A's, and their GPA will be higher. And I think AI just exacerbates the existing trends," Chirikov says.
- Regardless, professors have already been getting crafty to crack down on AI-fueled cheating, like requiring handwritten or oral exams.
The bottom line: "We need to be creative and think of AI-integrated assignments, and that students can use [LLMs], but they should properly document that," Chirikov says.
- "That's not an easy process, but we definitely should invest in that more than we do right now."
Go deeper: AI cheating shakes college writing and job prospects, so blue books are back
