By John Liu, CNN

For as long as there have been tests in schools, students have found ways to cheat, whether it is peeking over a classmate's shoulder or scribbling notes on a palm or crib sheet.

But as technology evolves and pressure builds for a top grade, students are now turning to AI-powered smart glasses to get an upper hand. And in East Asia's test-obsessed societies, where a single exam could impact the trajectory of a student's future career and social status, educators are scrambling to get ahead of the problem.

Twice last month, people in South Korea taking an exam to assess their English language skills - the results of which are often used to make hiring decisions - were caught using smart glasses.

In Taiwan, a student sitting for an entrance exam for a top medical school was discovered wearing smart glasses after proctors noticed the student staring oddly at the test, leading to an inspection that revealed the frame was emitting heat.

Cheating with smart glasses is not new. But as AI-enabled wearable devices become more commonplace, affordable and sophisticated, traditional aspects of education - from teaching to evaluation - are coming under immense pressure to evolve. More broadly, the technology also reignites debates over how to balance learning efficiency against the risk of cheating.

Already, countries are stepping up inspections for test-takers.

For China's grueling annual college entrance exam earlier this month - which more than 10 million hopefuls take each year - authorities required screening of all glasses. In the United Kingdom, the head of England's exam watchdog warned earlier this month that AI glasses and smart devices like earpieces could worsen cheating in exams.

The two incidents in South Korea were the country's first reported cases of cheating with AI glasses.

In response, South Korea's college entrance exam administrator told CNN it is in discussions with the Education Ministry and local education offices about measures to prevent cheating with AI glasses, which, along with all other electronic devices, are already banned from exam rooms.

In Taiwan, the university where a prospective student was caught cheating is now reviewing rules and standard operating procedures for AI eyewear during examinations.

But experts worry these individual cases point to a more widespread issue.

"If we're seeing a few cases being reported, we're seeing a lot more cases not being reported," said Thomas Corbin, lecturer at Deakin University in Australia, who has conducted research around the usage of AI-powered glasses and other smart devices in academic assessment.

With the rapid development of AI technology, however, smart glasses are becoming slimmer, less noticeable, while integrating AI models that can operate independently with connectivity, raising concerns not only about exam integrity, but also about broader privacy risks.

These wearable devices are rapidly moving away from novelty into the mainstream. US tech giant Meta launched its first AI-enabled glasses with Ray-Ban in late 2023, and has since released several new versions. Last year alone, more than seven million pairs were sold.

"Wearable AI is as much of a challenge to exams as ChatGPT was to essays in 2022 and I just don't think there is any real way that we can reliably have exam practices moving forward," Corbin said.

A 'viable technology' for cheating

A year ago, assistant professor Meng Zili at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) noticed a pair of stylish glasses worn by a student during an exam he was proctoring. As a researcher working on AI glasses, the frames caught his attention.

The glasses turned out to be ordinary. But the incident inspired him to test commercial AI glasses in an undergraduate-level exam of an electrical engineering course.

The result was striking, showing that AI glasses are a "viable technology" for handling exams, Meng said. By simply looking at the exam paper, the glasses could transmit questions to a connected AI large language model, which generated answers and displayed them on the lenses.

The score generated with the device placed it among the top five in a class of more than 100 students, significantly exceeding the average score of 72.

"After conducting the experiment, it really raises the question of how much knowledge students actually need to memorise for exams, versus whether we should allow them to use AI during assessment, given what AI is now capable of," Meng said.

Zhang Jun, an electrical engineering professor at HKUST who co-led the project with Meng, said that with how fast technology and AI are evolving, education on the ground is finding it hard to keep up - "every teacher feels that."

"The real question is how quickly we can rethink and adapt our education system - how we change the way we teach, and how we evaluate students," he said.

But despite being a major disruption to education, the power of AI should not be a reason to discourage its use, said Kong Siu Cheung, a professor and director of the AI and Digital Competence Education Centre at the Education University of Hong Kong.

Instead, the educational systems should focus on developing students' thinking capabilities and metacognition to prevent over-reliance on AI, he said.

"We should use technology. We should use AI. We should not just say avoid it, stop using it... The bottom line is: don't outsource your thinking capability," he added.

- CNN