A UC Berkeley professor has stopped grading students’ homework for correctness after noticing artificial intelligence tools were helping them rack up top marks.

Richard Borcherds, a renowned mathematician, said he no longer sees the value in paying graders to evaluate whether students’ homework answers are correct when AI can increasingly do the work for them.

The professor’s comments come after OpenAI’s announcement that its AI agents had apparently solved the notoriously difficult Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of mathematics’ major unsolved challenges.

“If AI continues to improve at present rate, then, in a few years, there’ll be nothing human mathematicians can do that AI can’t do better,” Borcherds told the Daily Californian, Berkeley’s student newspaper.

Borcherds, who received the prestigious Fields Medal in 1998 for his contributions to mathematics, said he now awards credit based on whether students complete their assignments rather than whether their answers are right.

He acknowledged that the approach falls short of an ideal grading system but said he currently has few alternatives.

The shift highlights the growing challenges universities face as students gain access to AI systems capable of tackling increasingly sophisticated academic work.

Borcherds also expressed uncertainty about whether aspiring mathematicians should still pursue the field, saying that, just five years ago, mathematics appeared to offer relatively strong protection against the disruption now sweeping through other professions.

“I have no idea what to advise. I even asked ChatGPT this exact question, and even ChatGPT said it didn’t have any idea what was going to happen,” he told the paper.

Richard Borcherds, a UC Berkeley professor and Fields medalist, now awards credit based on whether students complete their assignments rather than whether their answers are right. UC Berkeley

The professor suggested that universities might not immediately adapt to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence, pointing to the resistance to change that often characterizes academic institutions.

He predicted that mathematics departments could continue operating much as they do now for several years, even as AI capabilities advance.

Borcherds compared the situation to academic journals that continue publishing physical editions despite, in his view, having lost much of their purpose decades ago.

Borcherds also expressed uncertainty about whether aspiring mathematicians should still pursue the field. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

“There have been plenty of technical breakthroughs in the past — hand weaving was put out of business by looms, and horses were put out of business by motor cars, and so on,” Borcherds said. “This is the first time anything like this has happened in mathematics, though.”

Berkeley has already established guidance requiring faculty members to address AI use in their courses.

Anne Marie Richard, the university’s assistant vice provost for undergraduate education and chief academic technology officer, said the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate asks instructors to include statements in their syllabi outlining course expectations, including rules governing AI tools.

However, the specific restrictions can differ substantially depending on the class and its subject matter, Richard said in an email, according to The Californian.

The university has explored AI-detection software, including Turnitin and Rumi, but determined that the tools were not reliable enough to adopt as a standardized campus-wide solution, the student newspaper reported.

Individual instructors therefore retain control over AI policies in their classrooms.

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