{"id":297410,"date":"2025-11-20T16:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/297410\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:37:17","slug":"this-viral-ai-pen-didnt-help-me-cheat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/297410\/","title":{"rendered":"This viral AI pen didn\u2019t help me cheat"},"content":{"rendered":"

A college student recently told me about the latest tech designed to help students cheat \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t ChatGPT. It was an actual, physical gadget marketed in YouTube ads as the workaround to physical, hardcopy tests, which are back in vogue now as AI tears through higher education like a tornado. (One example is AI agents, which are unstoppable cheating machines<\/a> for online assignments.)<\/p>\n

But if questions printed on physical sheets of paper seem like the calm eye of the storm, think again, because when there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way \u2014 or a gadget. In this case, a small wand-like device that looks like a TV remote with a screen and some buttons on the side.<\/p>\n

In practice, the gadget is a text scanner. It \u201creads\u201d the letters on the page using a small camera tucked between two prongs protruding at one end, which turn on a light when depressed against a page. The on-device computer processes the words and uses AI or maybe the internet to churn out an answer.<\/p>\n

YouTube Shorts featuring devices with names like \u201cAI Smart Pen\u201d<\/a> or \u201cChatGPT pen\u201d<\/a> have been popping up on college students\u2019 video feeds. These POV-style videos show \u201cstudents\u201d pulling the \u201cpen\u201d out of their pocket and running it over the exams on the classroom desk. The videos have hundreds of thousands of views. \u201cI needed ts back in high school,\u201d reads the text across one video<\/a> showing an #ai #pen #gadget that scans a question asking for the name of the first president of the United States. (Answer: George Washington, according to the #ai #pen #gadget.)<\/p>\n

\"Stills<\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube videos of pens with buzzwords \u201cAI,\u201d \u201csmart,\u201d or \u201cgpt\u201d in the title have hundreds of thousands of views. Screenshot: YouTube<\/p>\n

That is how the ads make it look: One swipe of the gadget across a question on a printed test results in an answer to said question.<\/p>\n

So, I tried out one of the 90 or so devices called some version of \u201cAI scanner pen\u201d on Amazon \u2014 a \u201cScan Sense Pen, Ai Smart Scanner Pen\u201d for $68.99. It promised me \u201cInstant Ai Answers for Math, History & More\u201d in addition to offline translation of over 60 languages, a camera, Bluetooth connection, and access to music and file storage. I got it in black.<\/p>\n

I also found that it does not work.<\/p>\n

It turned on and illuminated the page of various test preparation study books that I checked out from the public library. The camera correctly detected words, some of the time, as it moved across a question.<\/p>\n

But the answers it gave me were gibberish nonsense. I tried it on questions about algebra, science, and history \u2014 and none of the answers made sense.<\/p>\n

At first, I wondered if I hadn\u2019t selected the correct setting. The menu of the pen we bought was in Chinese, which made it tricky for me to navigate the homescreen. I fed pictures of the screen into language translation apps to figure out what each button did. One was for language translation, another for essay help, and still more for vocabulary help or voice recording.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The pen\u2019s light turns on as it scans the page. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The homescreen menu was in Chinese. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The pen incorrectly scanned the page much of the time. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The pen\u2019s camera can take pictures of the printed text. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

The setting that I wanted, and the one I was already testing, is called Q&A and meant to answer scanned questions. Even when the device successfully scanned the words, which was not often, it would offer hilariously inaccurate options.<\/p>\n

For example, when I scanned the question \u201cWhat is the layer that is located immediately beneath the Earth\u2019s crust?\u201d, it told me that \u201cthere are over five hundred known active volcanoes in the world and thousands of extinct volcanoes.\u201d (Answer: mantle<\/a>. Fact check: The number of \u201cactive\u201d volcanoes depends on the timeframe, according to the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s Global Volcanism Program. There are 525 volcanoes<\/a> with confirmed eruptions since the year 1800.)<\/p>\n

The other problem was its size. It\u2019s far too bulky to not attract attention. Picture a quiet classroom, students sat at desks a few feet apart, the teacher peering out across the room from their desk at the front. Surely nearby peers or a proctor pacing the rows would notice a 6-by-1.25-inch wand lighting up a student\u2019s exam paper?<\/p>\n

While it failed as an answer machine, this device could theoretically help translate text between languages. I found six languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, Traditional Chinese, or English. A quick test from English to Chinese, and back to English via a translation app, appeared successful.<\/p>\n

College students told me of a far simpler and cheaper way to cheat on hard-copy tests: Snap a picture of the exam question on your phone and upload it to ChatGPT. This, they assured me, is relatively easy to do in large lecture halls, even with a proctor pacing around the room. The students told me they see their peers do this at the start of an exam. Later, those peers steal quick glances at their phone under the desk once ChatGPT has processed the answer. Or they look during a mid-test bathroom break.<\/p>\n

That is all to say: Cheating has never been easier, just maybe not with this device.<\/p>\n

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