Chinese Tech Firms Freeze AI Tools In Crackdown On Exam Cheats

Multiple Chinese AI companies have temporarily suspended some of their chatbot functions to prevent students from cheating during the country's highly competitive university entrance exams. The four-day Gaokao exams, which began on June 7 and will run until June 10, are crucial for over 13.3 million students vying for limited spots at universities across the country.  

According to a Bloomberg report, popular AI chatbots disable photo-recognition features when they detect a document that seems to be an exam paper. Alibaba's Qwen, ByteDance's Doubao, DeepSeek, Moonshot's Kimi and Tencent's Yuanbao have all been temporarily suspended during exam hours. The increasing availability of chatbots has made it easier than ever for students around the world to cheat.

When asked to explain the suspension, the Yuanbao and Kimi chatbots said the functions had been deactivated "to ensure the fairness of the college entrance examinations."

DeepSeek is restricting its service during certain hours for the same reason, The Guardian reported.

Doubao, owned by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, said, "During the college entrance examination, according to relevant requirements, the question-answering service will be suspended".

The suspension of AI chatbot features is just one of the measures taken to prevent cheating during the Gaokao exams. Several regions earlier mentioned that they would use AI monitoring techniques to detect "abnormal behaviours" such as whispers or repeated looks between students during exams.

Footage from Jiangxi province will be evaluated after the exam, and any violations or misconduct will be dealt with strictly in accordance with relevant legislation, according to the state-backed Global Times.

Chinese officials announced stronger entry inspections at test points, biometric identification, improved screening for digital devices, and radio signal blockers late last month, Chinese media reported.

Also referred to as the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE), the gaokao exam is a multi-day test taken by millions of students, each fighting to secure one of the limited spots at universities.