Artificial intelligence is taking over education in all kinds of interesting and innovative ways, and not all of them are positive.

Scammers are enrolling AI bots in online courses at California community colleges, with the bots staying in the class just long enough to receive state and federal financial aid. The phenomenon has popped up in Alabama, Maryland, and South Carolina, but California is the headliner. In 2021, 20% of applications to California community colleges were fake, a result of loosened restrictions on financial aid and a shift to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, AI advancements have led to around 34% of applications being fake.