It was decades ago that commentator Alan Keyes warned about the “moral crisis” — a reality he saw as more urgent than economic or other crises. He emphasized that virtue forms the root of society; if nurtured, all else follows healthily.
Today, this moral crisis has worsened significantly. It is evident in public support for individuals like killers Tyler Robinson, Luigi Mangione, Karmelo Anthony, and Lindsay Clancy. Moreover, an academic who has taught ethics at Harvard and the University of Chicago describes our society as becoming a “society of cheats.”
Professor John Paul Rollert, an expert in ethical studies, laments that artificial intelligence has made student cheating rampant and effortless. This issue extends far beyond academia: what happens when a generation graduates believing integrity is reserved for “suckers and wimps”?
Rollert’s essay, which is currently behind a paywall, explores this problem extensively. Commentator John Sexton recently addressed the topic, quoting Rollert.
Rollert writes that he often feels trapped on campus in the middle of a crime spree — not due to overdue library books or party chaos, but because students constantly use AI to cheat on assignments. While many articles have discussed how AI affects undergraduate intellectual development, Rollert focuses on moral consequences. He is confident about the impact on academic skills: graduate students he has taught anticipate a generation of incompetents roughly a decade behind. But more troublingly, he teaches business ethics and observes young people habituating cheating as a way of life.
Students today are learning to be thieves. Once they receive their diplomas, they will enter the workforce with the traits of a criminal syndicate: a knack for cutting corners, disdain for community rules, and the belief that integrity is for “suckers and wimps.” This creates a society of cheats.
The problem is exacerbated by minimal accountability. According to a Harvard survey cited by Rollert, among 2026 graduates who admitted to using AI for assignments against instructor permission, 93 percent claimed their cheating went undiscovered. Of the remaining students, over half reported facing no disciplinary action after being caught — meaning only 2.6 percent encountered consequences.
Sexton also references a psychologist from the Wharton School, Adam Grant, who noted that when asked to write essays on cheating, students often responded with excuses like “we’re under a lot of stress” or “everyone else is doing it.” They sounded similar to athletes in the steroid era — ChatGPT acting as their performance-enhancing drug.
Today’s students no longer feel guilt over cheating. In fact, the technology has advanced so that virtually any assignment can be ghost-written by AI. Recent reports indicate that among students studying online, AI sometimes takes entire classes — requiring only a command like “log in and complete my quiz.”
This pattern creates a society where barriers are seen as unfair and problems multiply. Imagine a doctor or lawyer who cheated through their education. Will it come as a surprise when these graduates advocate for socialism? They have received everything for “free” — even their degrees, which they earned without work.
Sexton states that high school students now cheat to enter college, where they continue cheating. In the near future, he warns, the world will become a place of people who know nothing, do nothing, and expect everything to be handed to them.
The solution, at least until computer chips are embedded in children’s skulls, is straightforward: end remote learning for assessments. Testing and essays must be done in person with no technology allowed — pen and paper suffice.
Critically, students are not the only cheaters. School officials and systems have also failed by enabling cheating on morality. Authority figures are duty-bound to punish transgressors effectively. Failing to do so is an abdication of responsibility — reflecting a lack of virtue and a sense of justice. Just as students fail to complete their work, officials fail in their moral duties.
Students may believe integrity belongs to “suckers and wimps.” However, the true wimps are those officials who, through omission, make honest students feel like suckers.
Furthermore, every professor complaining about this issue is infected with today’s philosophical disease: moral relativism. This belief reduces morality to illusion, where right and wrong are mere shades of gray. As Sexton explains, this mindset began when elders rejected traditional constraints — for example, seeking free sex. Younger generations, moving further down the rabbit hole, now demand free degrees and everything else.
If we continue on this path, the only “free” thing we won’t have is freedom itself.