On AI glasses and wearable AI in assessment

Abstract

AI-enabled smart glasses with real-time AI capabilities are now mass-market consumer products, in many cases indistinguishable from ordinary eyewear. They can display AI-generated text within the wearer’s line of sight, process speech through built-in microphones, and read examination materials through integrated cameras, all without producing any reliable external signal. These capabilities are significant for higher education not least because many institutions rely upon the physical exclusion of AI from the point of assessment to assure learning, particularly by way of invigilated exams and interactive orals. This paper introduces the concept of dual transparency to argue that wearable AI erodes the conditions of separability and observability on which the physical exclusion of AI from assessment has come to depend. It argues that attempts to maintain physical exclusion under conditions of dual transparency are likely to lead not to restored security but to a regime of bodily adjudication whose burden falls hardest on students with disabilities, health conditions, and religious dress practices.