An "A-grade flood" is sweeping across US college campuses as generative artificial intelligence spreads, with students using ChatGPT and other AI tools to polish their assignments and coding projects, sharply eroding the ability of grades to distinguish performance.
The share of A grades at US universities has noticeably increased since generative AI began spreading widely in 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The trend is especially pronounced in humanities and engineering courses, where take-home essays, reports and programming assignments account for a large portion of coursework.
According to an analysis of roughly 500,000 grade records from 2018 to 2025 by the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley, professors teaching courses with high potential for generative AI use awarded A grades at rates more than 30% higher than those in other courses. Meanwhile, the share of middle-range grades such as A- and B+ declined.
What stands out is that such a gap barely existed before ChatGPT emerged. Grade distributions between assignment-heavy and non-assignment-heavy courses were similar before 2022, but A grades began surging in assignment-heavy classes from 2023. Analysts interpret the shift not as a sudden leap in student ability, but as the result of AI becoming deeply embedded in the assignment-writing process.
Leading US universities are acknowledging the severity of the problem. In a report released last month, Yale University diagnosed that "situations in which grades fail to reflect students' actual academic achievement are becoming increasingly common." Harvard University is reviewing plans to cap the share of A grades and has begun discussing institutional reforms to curb excessive grade inflation.
Professors are also rapidly changing their assessment methods. Chelsea Shine, who teaches negotiation and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has sharply reduced the weight of homework and increased the weight of in-class quizzes and midterm exams. The aim is to directly verify students' thinking and problem-solving skills without the help of AI.
Companies are also tightening their standards for evaluating college grades. On Handshake, a recruitment platform, the share of job postings requiring a GPA of 3.5 or higher among those requesting grade submissions surged from 9% in 2020 to 25% this year. That indicates companies are raising their own filtering criteria in response to the "A-grade flood" era.
Experts warn that generative AI can boost productivity while simultaneously shaking the very foundation of education. Grades are increasingly likely to be determined by how skillfully students use AI rather than how well they perform assignments.
