If there’s one thing that chatbots have proven, it’s that we’re in a golden era for academic cheating. And as bad as using ChatGPT to “earn” a law degree is, chatbots aren’t having all the problematic fun; we have the existential threat of using smart glasses while testing, too.
It’s not just theoretical. The prospect of students using smart glasses to cheat on tests is apparently so real that the College Board, which administers the SATs, just banned students from using smart glasses starting in the spring. Here’s the official wording from the College Board itself:
“Smart glasses are prohibited during testing. Students with prescription smart glasses will need to remove them or test another day with standard glasses.”
It’s not much in the way of backlash, but it says a lot without saying a lot. And the thing is, the College Board is absolutely justified in banning smart glasses. Having used quite a few pairs over the past year, I can say without a doubt that they’re uniquely capable cheating tools, and it’s not necessarily the screens that are the problem.
Arguably, the bigger threat is that many smart glasses are tethered to chatbots like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, and if you have access to chatbots, you have access to lots of answers that are technically supposed to be coming from your head, not the internet. Summoning that information is also extremely easy. Meta’s Ray-Bans, for example, can hear your voice at a very low volume, making cheating in a quiet room feasible.
Then there’s the issue of cameras. Not only do most smart glasses have voice assistants, but they also have computer vision that can take a picture of what you’re looking at and then opine on it. That particular feature could be useful for subjects like math, which may involve solving an equation based on a graph or shape—things you need to see to really grasp.
If you want to get really conspiratorial about it, you could also technically video call someone while you’re testing and have them tell you the answers to stuff since some smart glasses, like the Meta Ray-Ban Display, have built-in POV video calling through WhatsApp.
The fact is, there are a million ways to cheat with smart glasses, and they’re a lot harder to spot compared to using a phone, which you have to whip out of your pocket or purse and tap around on. Smart glasses are more discreet, which is appealing in some ways but also makes them threatening, especially when it comes to privacy. The Meta Ray-Ban Display are particularly discreet thanks to the included Neural Band, which lets you control the glasses by just swiping your thumb and pinching your fingers. Your hands don’t even have to be within sight of the smart glasses’ camera, either; they can be somewhere less obvious, like at your side or in the pocket of a hoodie.
There’s already precedent for students using smart glasses to cheat, by the way, so this isn’t really a strawman reaction. I am curious if the people administering the SATs will even have the wherewithal to notice a pair of smart glasses versus a regular pair, though. As someone who wears camera glasses regularly, I’m fairly certain that most people don’t even register that I have them on. Will they be checking everyone’s glasses before they take the exam? What about smart glasses like Even Realities Even G2, which don’t have cameras on them? To 99% of the people looking, they look plain as day.
It’s a whole problem, to be sure, but if there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that a simple ban isn’t going to solve anything. So, I guess cheat away, kids? The chatbots might get you into a good school, but they aren’t going to save you from the scourge of insurmountable student debt.