AI and Codecademy's Integrity Policy

HQ Announcements
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Hi, everyone!

Given the growing popularity of AI tools such as ChatGPT, we needed to address the elephant in the room.

Some of you may have noticed the recent update to our Guidelines, specifically under “Integrity.” The update reads as follows:

“We do not, under any circumstances, tolerate cheating or dishonesty.

Please do not post answers or ask for them.

Some people may help you by posting some code or showing you errors, but the goal must remain to help others to learn; cheating is not tolerated. If we see anybody cheating, we will delete the post and, depending on the circumstances, possibly ban your account.

Having integrity also means not posting AI-generated answers (like from ChatGPT or other similar tools). We consider these unreliable answers and contributions to our Forums and will delete them.”

Why have we taken this stance regarding AI?

As a learning platform, Codecademy strives to push learners to arrive at solutions by thinking critically and trying their own solutions first. Unfortunately, relying on AI to generate code, can end up hurting more than it helps.

We appreciate there is still a level of nuance and grey area as AI continues to develop, and we know we’ll likely have to adjust our AI policies as the technology advances. In the meantime, we thank you for understanding and abiding by our guidelines.

Happy coding!

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Cheating how? I Completly agree with this statement, but how can someone cheat here? Where?

Also, why should someone cheat? Academically, at least, it doesn’t make sense to me, and it is also shameful to see people cheating; I feel more sorry for them than disappointed.

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I think you’re naiively assuming that everyone who undertakes to acquire ${insert qualification/educational output here} does so because they want to learn the material, and not because society demands they have ${qual} as a bare minimum or to meet some arbitrary job spec…

In the years I’ve been here, there have - unfortunately - been intermittent occasions where people have come here looking for quick results / “do it for me” type help for either educational coursework or for a technical test etc. Neither of those are cheating the Codecademy material, but it doesn’t say “Don’t cheat at Codecademy”… :slight_smile:

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Thank for you doing this. A commitment to ethics and intergity, at whatever stage and however imperfect, is important, it’s a good start and places us in the right direction to go down.

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