Cheating with Technology

By Andrew, Jack, and Leo
Published April 4, 2025

Over the years cheating with technology has become a common issue. Just by simply looking up answers on a math test or using cameras to tell baseball players what pitch was coming, technology has affected the way people can cheat. Cheating has increased because technology has gotten better and better, with some examples being telling ChatGPT to write an essay or using a calculator to solve math answers.  

In 2020, the International Review of Economics reported that 48% of students had cheated using tech once or twice, 39% of students had never cheated, 12% had cheated many times, and 1% of students cheated regularly. They’re using tech by using a calculator in math when they're not supposed to or looking up homework answers on a device to cheat .  Recently, AI is becoming a very common tool to cheat. 

Did you know that cheating went up during COVID-19 because so many people were taking online classes?  According to NPR, there were just more opportunities to cheat using the internet to find answers or to communicate with other classmates to find answers. Technology such as smart watches or smart speakers make it easier and efficient for students to cheat. 

  Another cheating with technology example is sports. In 2017 at all the Houston Astros’ “home “baseball” games, they used a camera in the outfield to tell what type of pitch was coming”. They would then send it to the head coach and he would bang  a trash can to alert the batter.  Alerting the batter on what pitch it is going to be is a huge advantage because if you know what pitch  is you can take a certain swing to hit the ball almost every time. This got them to the World Series and they won.  

But the Astros weren’t the only team cheating. The Spygate scandal was a National Football League (NFL) controversy during the 2007 season, in which it was discovered that the New England Patriots were videotaping opposing coaches' signals during games under head coach Bill Belichick. “The Patriots” Bill Belichick did end up with a $500,000 fine for doing this to the New York Jets. As part of the allegations, the  NFL required the Patriots to turn over any and all notes and tapes relating to the taping of opponents' defensive signals. The Patriots refused to allow the video tapes to leave their athletic facilities. In turn, at NFL Commissioner Goodell's ordering, league officials went to the Patriots' facilities and smashed the tapes. 

This is affecting us because if we cheat all the time, nothing good will come of it. Technology has changed for the better and also for the worse like cheating or taking over and helping people do something educational. Also cheating is getting too easy with tech with chatbots to simply look up the answers on your device. If we cheat using AI or chatbots, we won't be giving ourselves a full education.