In February, the California Bar Examination experienced chaos such as online platform downtime and system errors. The organizing body, the State Bar of California, admitted today that some multiple-choice questions used artificial intelligence (AI), triggering criticism.

According to "The Los Angeles Times," the State Bar of California, which administers the exam under the Supreme Court of California, has been heavily criticized recently for not only technical problems like online platform downtime, screen delays, and system errors but also disputes over the quality of the test questions.

The State Bar of California stated that out of 171 multiple-choice questions, 100 were created by the exam preparation company Kaplan, 48 came from first-year law school exams, and another 23 were developed with the assistance of AI by a testing consulting company named ACS Ventures.

This company was not only involved in creating the questions but also responsible for subsequent evaluations of the validity and reliability of these questions, sparking strong质疑 from academia regarding potential conflicts of interest.

Katie Moran, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, said that this fact is shocking. "The State Bar of California allowed non-legal professionals to use AI to write exam questions and then asked the same company to review the quality of these questions."

Mary Basick, associate dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, said, "The disaster of this exam exceeds imagination. I didn't even believe the students at first when they said some questions seemed like they were written by AI."

The State Bar of California has requested the Supreme Court of California to adjust the exam scores and stated that the questions have been reviewed by expert panels.

This exam was the first time California fully adopted a hybrid testing system combining on-site and remote online exams. It was originally intended to save costs, but frequent technical issues have led to continuous criticism. The Supreme Court of California has ordered a return to a full on-site exam starting in July this year.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7496739448420614691/

Disclaimer: This article solely represents the author's viewpoint. Please express your attitude by using the 【Upvote/Downvote】buttons below.