A history professor at Alcorn State University in Mississippi devised a simple test to catch students submitting AI-generated essay answers, hiding an instruction in white text within an essay prompt that told any chatbot to insert the word "Madagascar" nonsensically into its response. Every one of the 35 students who sat the test fell for it, submitting essays containing bizarre, out-of-place references to Madagascar, proving they had copied the prompt straight into an AI tool without reading or checking the output. The stunt, shared in a viral TikTok video by lecturer Jason Gibson, has drawn attention as a fresh example of the scale of AI-assisted cheating in education and students' apparent failure to even review what they submit.

The case echoes wider concerns about AI's impact on learning, including MIT research showing reduced brain activity in students who used AI to write essays, and Guardian reporting on rising numbers of British students caught cheating with AI. At Brown University, one professor found take-home exam scores inflated to 96 percent thanks to AI use, only for the same class to average just 48.6 percent on a closed-book final. Gibson said he informed his students of the trick and gave them a chance to appeal their grades; only two did so, with just one appeal succeeding.