---
id: "action-ban-ai-detectors"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["00:11:36", "00:12:20"]
tags: ["policy", "assessment"]
related: ["claim-ai-detection-impossible", "claim-take-home-exams-dead", "contrarian-ai-detectors-are-snake-oil"]
action: "Stop using AI writing detectors and replace take-home essays with in-class assessments."
outcome: "Prevents false accusations of cheating and creates a more accurate measure of student capability."
sources: ["s10-vibe-codes"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s10-vibe-codes"
originDay: 10
---
# Abandon AI Detection Tools

## Action

Schools and educators must immediately **stop using AI writing detection software**.

## Why

1. The tools are mathematically incapable of working reliably (see [[claim-ai-detection-impossible]])
2. Inevitable false positives ruin the lives of innocent students (see [[contrarian-ai-detectors-are-snake-oil]])
3. Even if detection worked, the underlying assessment model (take-home essays) is broken (see [[claim-take-home-exams-dead]])

## What To Do Instead

Redesign the assessment model entirely:
- **In-class supervised work** — handwritten or proctored typed essays
- **Oral examinations** — Socratic questioning that surfaces real understanding
- **Whiteboard problem-solving** — process visible, AI absent
- **Live coding interviews** — for technical assessment
- **Project-based assessments** with in-person defenses

## Outcome

Prevents false accusations of cheating. Creates a more accurate measure of student capability. Restores trust in the assessment infrastructure.

## Anticipated Pushback

Oral exams and in-class work are **resource-intensive** and hard to scale in massive lecture halls. This is precisely the unresolved problem in [[open-question-assessment-redesign]]. The action does not pretend the alternative is free — only that the current path is actively harmful.