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As the 2024 national college entrance examination, known as the gaokao in Chinese, kicked off on Friday, a number of provinces and cities have used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to monitor exam violations for the first time, making every effort to ensure the fairness of the examination.

Gaokao is deemed as the most important examination in the Chinese academic calendar, so guaranteeing fairness and timely identification of cheating is of vital importance. Analysts noted that through AI's learning abilities, the large data set can be turned into learning materials to help improve future exam monitoring.

South China's Guangdong Province deployed an AI real-time intelligent inspection system for 386 examination sites for the first time during this year's gaokao, JRJ.com reported. Using advanced AI technology, the system is able to detect cheating, plagiarism and other abnormal behaviors in real time by analyzing the image and video data in the examination room, and immediately send out alerts to invigilators to take further action.

South China's Hainan Province also piloted the use of AI intelligent inspection in the examination sites, for timely detecting and early warning of violations of discipline, Hainan Special Zone News reported. 

In addition, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality also used the AI intelligent systems across several exam sites to analyze and study the abnormal behavior during the examination in real time, so as to nip the problem in the bud, gww.cn reported. 

This year, Beijing has upgraded the intelligent inspection system used in the gaokao, with more sensitive video monitoring and identification. Head-turning, bending down to pick up things, communication between invigilators and students... such small actions will be captured by the video system, which can quickly identify suspected irregularities pinpointed to individual candidates, thepaper.cn reported. 

Moreover, many cities also used radar to explore the road, arranged radio detection vehicles, and employed patrol robots and drones, providing support for the nationwide examination.

Analysts noted that although AI technology can not completely replace human supervision at present, it can help defend the credibility of the gaokao while reducing the pressure of the invigilators.

With the continuous enrichment and development of AI technology, there will be more "hard-core technology" applied to the protection of the national college entrance examination, and exam cheating behaviors will be effectively reduced and even eliminated, they said.

Global Times