Incident 131: Proctoring Algorithm in Online California Bar Exam Flagged an Unusually High Number of Alleged Cheaters
Description: The proctoring algorithm used in a California bar exam cited a third of thousands of applicants as cheaters, resulting in allegations where exam takers were instructed to prove otherwise without seeing their incriminating video evidence.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: ExamSoft developed an AI system deployed by California Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners, which harmed California bar exam takers and flagged California bar exam takers.
Incident Stats
Incident ID
131
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2020-12-04
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Remember when we said that the online bar exam’s “cheating” algorithm was going to be a problem? It already flagged Black and Brown folks for merely existing, but it didn’t stop there and managed to key in on all sorts of people as likely c…
More than one-third of those who took California’s first online bar exam in October were flagged for possible cheating, based on alerts sent by the test’s software, the state bar said.
Of the 9,301 people who took the entire exam, “we are c…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
