Dr. Jason Gibson, a Social Sciences instructor at Alcorn State University, gained national attention after catching 32 out of 35 students across two classes using artificial intelligence to complete a midterm exam. To identify the cheating, Gibson hid an invisible white-text command within a discussion post prompt about the Industrial Revolution, instructing students to randomly insert the word “Madagascar” in a way that made no sense.
Because the word was entirely unrelated to the exam topic, its presence exposed students who copied and pasted the prompt directly into an AI generator without reviewing the output. Consequently, the implicated students failed that portion of the exam. Alcorn State University issued a statement emphasizing its commitment to academic integrity and praising faculty for creative methods to uphold it as AI impacts education. Meanwhile, Gibson advised students that if they choose to use AI, they should at least thoroughly read and rewrite the material in their own words to ensure it makes sense.
