According to The Verge, AI companies are aggressively targeting students with free access to premium tools—OpenAI gave away ChatGPT Plus for finals, while Perplexity and Google offer yearlong free subscriptions. These companies know exactly what they’re doing, with Perplexity even running ads showing how students can use their AI agent to complete multiple-choice homework and take quizzes. Meanwhile, educational platforms like Canvas say they can’t technically block AI agents, leaving teachers struggling to detect cheating in what one educator called “the wild west” of AI in classrooms.
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The marketing is getting pretty shameless
Here’s the thing that really gets me: Perplexity isn’t just passively allowing cheating—they’re actively promoting it. Their CEO reposted a video of someone using their AI to complete homework with a wink-and-nod “Absolutely don’t do this” caption. That’s like a bartender posting videos of people getting drunk and saying “Don’t drink this!” while handing out free shots. And their student referral program literally pays people $20 for each student they recruit. They’re treating education like a customer acquisition channel.
Teachers are getting fed up
The stats are staggering—about a quarter of US teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork, double the share from 2023. College Board research shows the majority of high school students now use generative AI for assignments. But when educators like instructional designer Yun Moh asked Canvas to block AI agents from pretending to be students, the company basically shrugged and said this was a “philosophical” problem, not a technical one. Seriously? They have tens of millions of users across every Ivy League school, but they can’t figure out how to stop AI from submitting assignments?
The corporate response is… underwhelming
Everyone’s passing the buck. Perplexity’s spokesperson actually compared AI cheating tools to the abacus. The abacus! OpenAI says AI shouldn’t be an “answer machine” while simultaneously making deals with educational platforms. Google tested a “homework help” button that made cheating easier, then paused it after backlash—but left the door open for future shortcuts. The pattern is clear: release first, ask questions later. These companies want the education market badly enough to give their products away for free, but not badly enough to actually solve the problems they’re creating.
So where does this leave education?
Basically, we’re heading toward a future where AI literacy becomes as fundamental as reading and writing—but we’re getting there through chaos rather than planning. The conversation is shifting from “how do we stop cheating?” to “how do we teach with AI?” But that transition is happening while products are already in wild use. Teachers are stuck being the AI police without proper tools or training. Meanwhile, research suggests AI might actually harm learning outcomes when used improperly. The companies creating these tools talk about “responsible AI use” while their marketing teams are practically winking at students about cheating. It’s a mess, and the people paying the price are the educators trying to do their jobs and the students who might never learn how to think for themselves.
