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
Applied Taxonomies
CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsIncident Number
The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
131
CSETv1_Annotator-1 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsIncident Number
The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
130
Special Interest Intangible Harm
An assessment of whether a special interest intangible harm occurred. This assessment does not consider the context of the intangible harm, if an AI was involved, or if there is characterizable class or subgroup of harmed entities. It is also not assessing if an intangible harm occurred. It is only asking if a special interest intangible harm occurred.
no
Date of Incident Year
The year in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the year, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank.
Enter in the format of YYYY
2020
Date of Incident Month
The month in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the month, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank.
Enter in the format of MM
10
Estimated Date
“Yes” if the data was estimated. “No” otherwise.
No
Multiple AI Interaction
“Yes” if two or more independently operating AI systems were involved. “No” otherwise.
no
CSETv1_Annotator-2 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsIncident Number
The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
131
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
abovethelaw.com · 2020
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
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…
news.bloomberglaw.com · 2020
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
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.
