Roberto Serrano, a well-known economics professor at Brown University, has sharply criticized the school's response to what he describes as a widespread artificial intelligence (AI) cheating scandal in his class during the spring 2026 semester. The incident unfolded after a deadly campus shooting in December 2025 led Serrano to move his traditionally in-person exams to an online, take-home format, aiming to reduce student anxiety. This change caused enrollment in his advanced economics course to jump from about 30 to 86 students.

When the take-home midterm was administered, the average score soared to 96 percent—a significant increase over the usual range of 65 to 80 percent, despite the exam being more difficult than previous years. Suspicious of these results, Serrano and his graders ran the test questions through ChatGPT and found that many student answers mirrored the AI's responses, often displaying similar logic and unusual phrasing. Forty students received perfect scores, and eventually, Serrano concluded that at least 50 had used AI to cheat—making it the largest known academic fraud case at Brown and one of the most significant in the Ivy League.

Following these findings, Serrano reverted the final exam to an in-person format and warned students that if their final scores did not match the midterm's distribution, he would void the midterm results. Eighteen students dropped the class before the final, with nine more not taking the exam. Of those who remained, the average score dropped to 48 out of 100, and only a handful performed similarly to their midterm results, reinforcing suspicions of cheating.

Despite submitting his findings to Brown's Standing Committee on the Academic Code, Serrano received no immediate response. Only after publicizing the issue did the committee request that he submit individual complaints for each suspected student—a process he criticized as impractical and ineffective, particularly given the limitations of current AI-detection tools. Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark told Inside Higher Ed that the school treats every academic integrity allegation seriously and follows the same procedures regardless of the number of students involved.

The scandal has sparked broader debate among faculty and administrators about how universities should address the challenges posed by generative AI. A recent university report found that three-quarters of Brown professors are concerned about AI-enabled cheating, mirroring national trends. The report encourages both strengthening academic codes to address AI misuse and shifting focus away from punishment toward open dialogue and education about responsible AI use.

Serrano has called for universities to take a stronger stance on academic integrity, warning that widespread cheating could erode the value of higher education and harm society at large. He plans to further discuss the issue with university leadership and has already changed his course policies for future semesters, eliminating take-home exams and reducing assignments that could be completed using AI.

Manny Munoz