I just read that China has temporarily blocked access to various AI platforms while students are taking their college entrance exams across the country. This seems like a pretty big move to prevent cheating during these important tests.
I’m curious about how this actually works in practice. Do they completely shut down services like chatbots and AI writing tools, or is it more of a regional internet restriction? Also, does anyone know if other countries have done similar things during major standardized testing periods?
It makes sense from an academic integrity standpoint, but I wonder how they handle the technical side of blocking these services nationwide. Has anyone experienced something like this in their country during exam seasons?
yea, the phone thing was a pain! Seems like a crazy amount of work to block AI tho. DNS blockin’ is probably their best shot. I haven’t heard much from other countries on this, but def wouldn’t be shocked if it catches on.
They probably just update their Great Firewall - tweak the DNS filtering and packet inspection rules. Not that complex when you’ve already got nationwide internet monitoring running. What’s wild is coordinating the timing across all provinces and ISPs at once. I haven’t seen other countries go this far, though some universities here kill wifi or jam signals during exams. But doing it nationally for Gaokao? That’s next level. Most places just stick with proctors and banning devices instead of shutting down infrastructure.
This reminds me of dealing with network restrictions at my company during product launches. Pretty straightforward once you’ve got the infrastructure.
They’re probably using IP blocking and keyword filtering at the ISP level. AI platforms have known server ranges, so you push updated routing tables to major telecom providers. Takes about an hour to go nationwide.
The blocking’s easy - rollback’s the tricky part. I’ve seen temporary restrictions go sideways when someone forgot to remove the rules. With millions of students taking exams, timing has to be perfect.
What’s interesting is they’re being proactive instead of just catching cheaters afterward. Shows they see AI cheating as a systemic threat, not just individual cases.
South Korea does something similar but smaller - they jam cell towers near testing centers. This is definitely the most comprehensive approach I’ve heard of.