Generative AI is shattering university testing standards, leaving institutions struggling to assess learning, and threatening to reduce formal degrees to simple certificates of attendance.

I have a couple of university degrees. They have been a signal from my alma maters to the outer world. A signal that says: we, the universities that awarded these certificates, put our reputation on the line and guarantee that this fellow learnt something. We know, because we checked. He may not have been the sharpest pencil in the box, but neither was he the dullest, so when he arrives at your door looking for a job, you can be reasonably sure that he paid his fees, studied a bit, read a bit, thought a bit, and wrote and passed some tests. And to repeat: we know because we checked and have been doing this for a very long time, so please trust us.

For the first time in pedagogical history, these ramparts are starting to crumble. Universities today can no longer make that claim with the certainty they used to. Soon they might not even be able to make that claim at all.

Consider this. At 10pm on a Sunday, two hours before the deadline, a student submits an essay on the causes of the World War 1. It is lucid, elegantly structured, free of typos, and not too...