More than 400 students at universities across Scotland have been caught using artificial intelligence to cheat in the last two years, according to data compiled by AI company AIPRM from Freedom of Information requests and first reported in the Sunday Post.

Of the 431 students caught using AI, 211 came from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University, while 72 came from Dundee’s Abertay University, and a further 51 from the University of Glasgow .

Other universities to detect AI misuse included Glasgow Caledonian University which found 30 students using banned software, St Andrews University which caught 23, and Stirling University, where 22 students were found cheating.

Universities Scotland, the representative body of Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions, said: “The use of AI offers both risks and opportunities to universities, and institutions should embrace change as students begin to reach for AI in the way we have done for other digital tools.

“Universities are collaborating closely with relevant expert bodies on ICT and academic integrity to help inform their processes on AI as the technology advances.”

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Plagiarism has become a growing concern among higher education institutions. Last year, universities across the UK announced they were drawing up a set of guiding principles to ensure that students and staff are AI literate, with Vice-chancellors at the 24 Russel Group research-intensive universities signing up to the code.

Commenting for the Sunday Post, teachers union the EIS said it backed calls for the government to launch an ethics framework for the use of AI, saying: “As AI becomes more prevalent within society, it is essential that students are not only educated in the perceived benefits of AI but are able to assess any risks and the impact of those risks on their education, their qualifications and on their life choices more generally.”

The figures were released after AI developer AIPRM submitted Freedom of Information requests to 157 UK universities. The data showed that sixty-five institutions said they had caught students using AI to cheat, while fifteen, including eight in Scotland, said they had not detected any.

Going by the data, it’s unclear if some universities have more students using AI to cheat, or whether some institutions are simply better at identifying AI misuse than others.