René Kizilcec

Associate Professor of Information Science @Cornell; Education, Technology, AI/ML, Fairness/Equity. Opinions are my own.

[AIDB @ai_database]

コーネル大学の調査によると、低所得層の高校生ほどAIを使って大学出願の小論文を書くようになっており、それが合格に与える”ダメージ”が大きいとのこと。
AIを使えば文章の質は表面上は上がりますが、審査官はそれを「この学生らしくない」と受け取ることがあるためと考えられています。

今回研究者らが8万1千件以上の大学入試の小論文を分析したところ、ChatGPT登場後、低所得層の学生ほどAIに頼る割合が高くなっていました。これは理にかなっており、家庭教師や塾よりAIのほうが安価だからです。

ところが、AIを使った低所得層の出願者と同じ学力・属性の高所得層を比較すると、審査結果の格差は以前より31%も広がっていました。

なぜそうなるのか、実際は研究者たちも明確な答えは出せていませんが、AIが生み出す「うまい文章」は、文化資本を持つ人々の言葉のクセに基づいており、その規範に沿って書けば書くほど、規範から遠い学生が「不自然だ」と判断されてしまう構造になっているためと推測されています。

ということは、格差はAIを使った結果を評価する側の眼差しに宿っていることになります。そこが深いポイントです。

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

📣Festival of Learning 2026 🎆
June 29 – July 3, 2026 • Seoul, South Korea

Co-location of AIED @AIEDconf, EDM @EDMConf2025, and L@S @LearningAtScale w/ contributions from SoLAR @SoLAResearch and ISLS @islsnews

Mark your calendars, stay tuned!
Website: https://t.co/nUYEOGPSoT

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

Excited to be at #lak2025 check out Kimberly Williamson’s paper today at 10:20 on Algo Appreciation among Educators! Happy to chat about the National Tutoring Observatory— we are hiring a postdoc and Asst Research Prof. https://t.co/bwWTE5ritD

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

Excited for @LearningAtScale to be in Palermo next summer together with @AIEDconf and @EDMConf2025 and confirmed keynote by @chrispiech!

[ACM Learning@Scale 2026 @LearningAtScale]

The 2025 ACM Learning at Scale Call for Papers is out!

Check out all Submission Guidelines and Important Dates: https://t.co/N4BgBdEdDM

Did we mention we are in sunny Palermo, Sicily in 2025, co-located with @AIEDconf & @EDMConf2025?

@SusanRSinger @OlgaOvi @xaoch @Iriskie_Xia

[Cornell Chronicle @CornellNews]

What do LLMs write like? Researchers at @CornellCIS, @Stanford and @Penn found that #AI-generated college admissions essays are most similar to those written by male students with high socioeconomic status and privilege. @whynotyet @aj_alvero https://t.co/eqsCzgynSK

[AJ Alvero @aj_alvero]

Sharing a paper just published in the Journal of Big Data! Studies have shown strong associations with writing and demography, so here we ask "who do LLMs write like?"

Answer: higher social status people (with some caveats) BUT with very little variance

https://t.co/mUbMeNs0p0

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

@michael_muller We have not tested this but yes, you could ask the model to answer like a person on one part of the country and see how much information is needed to get the responses aligned. A benchmark dataset would be needed to evaluate alignment.

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

In addition to showing the cultural bias in GPT’s responses, we demonstrate a simple but effective control strategy to improve cultural alignment: cultural prompting, I.e. instructing the model to respond like someone from your region. It works best for the latest versions.

[PNAS Nexus @PNASNexus]

Researchers concerned about cultural bias in large language models asked ChatGPT questions about values used in international surveys. All versions of the model answered like people in English-speaking and Protestant European countries. In PNAS Nexus: https://t.co/P0wFl4i83h

[PNAS Nexus @PNASNexus]

Researchers concerned about cultural bias in large language models asked ChatGPT questions about values used in international surveys. All versions of the model answered like people in English-speaking and Protestant European countries. In PNAS Nexus: https://t.co/P0wFl4i83h

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

We are hiring at @CornellInfoSci ! Open rank: https://t.co/heilBhgeh6 Cornell is a fantastic place to work, please consider applying and sharing this opportunity.

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

Happy to share that @CornellInfoSci is hiring teaching faculty in all areas! Teaching Cornell students has been a wonderful experience. Please share this opportunity widely: https://t.co/UFrhHHPYVN

[Olga Viberg @OlgaOvi]

Our SI on Advancing Equity and Inclusion in educational practices with AI-powered educational decision support systems (AI-EDSS) is out! Check all the valuable contributions! https://t.co/MH058hBpe9 @BJETEds @whynotyet @IoanaJJ @alywise @NiaDowell

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

What does the Life Cycle of Large Language Models look like? Check out our new BJET article mapping how LLM-based applications are developed and what biases can arise in each step. https://t.co/oKeqZQCJV2 https://t.co/SQvEfkZBYp @JinsookLee1021 @cab938 @renzheyu @YannHicke

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

📣Cornell Postdoc Position: Join our interdisciplinary, NSF-funded project on deterring objectionable speech online with @nataliebazarova @drewmargolin @difrad Details here: https://t.co/ukmzblfvoW Thank you for sharing

[ACM Learning@Scale 2026 @LearningAtScale]

Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Learning at Scale Conference are now available in the ACM Digital Library: https://t.co/4j9fQsHLef

#las24ed

[Xuhai “Orson” Xu @Orson_Xu]

📢 Super excited to share that I'll be joining @Columbia @ColumbiaDBMI @columbiahci as an Assistant Professor in Jan'25!

Pls RT: I'm hiring PhDs & Postdocs in Sp/Fa'25 in #DBMI & #CS. My lab focuses on #HCI and #AI for health. Check out https://t.co/SYwSVAtoWj for more info!

[René Kizilcec @whynotyet]

What cultural values do GPT-4o, 4, 3.5, 3 express? Using World Values Survey questions, we find GPT consistently aligns with English-speaking countries/Protestant Europe. We show that Cultural Prompting improves alignment. https://t.co/wAeWIQBRtu @yan_ytyt @OlgaOvi @BakerEDMLab

[ACM Learning@Scale 2026 @LearningAtScale]

The #las24ed program is available online: https://t.co/YIImWrZaWI

And if you haven't registered yet, make sure to take advantage of regular rates by July 1!

@OlgaOvi @A_MartinezMones @zpardos @SusanRSinger @rebquintana @openHPI @marimar_ps @choux @cdemmansepp @BakerEDMLab

[ACM Learning@Scale 2026 @LearningAtScale]

Today is the last day to get #EarlyBird rates on registration for ACM Learning at Scale 2024 and
@EDMConf2024. Co-registration options available. Join us in Atlanta!

https://t.co/8sqtXMvPMg

#las24ed #edm2024

[ACM Learning@Scale 2026 @LearningAtScale]

The list of accepted papers is now up on the L@S 2024 website! https://t.co/17kmaMUsGd