AI is making “A” grades easier to come by, a new study shows—and making them less useful to employers trying to size up college graduates.
The share of A’s in college classes heavy on writing and coding—in other words, work more prone to artificial-intelligence use—has grown more significantly than in other classes since ChatGPT’s debut, according to a paper from the University of California, Berkeley, released Wednesday. Professors teaching AI-exposed classes gave out about 30% more A’s and fewer A-minus and B-plus grades.
The results suggest that students have relied on generative AI to do better in their studies, not that these classes of students are learning more, says Igor Chirikov, a senior researcher at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education and the paper’s author.
While grade inflation has been an issue on college campuses for years, AI tools have made it even harder to assess the quality of students’ work. To zero in on AI’s effect on grades, Chirikov pulled data on more than half a million grades from 2018 to 2025 at a large public university in Texas that publishes course syllabi and grade distributions.