In my work with G7–G12 students at Force Academy, a research initiative in Chongqing, I sometimes take a project that appears to be finished and give another student responsibility for using, checking, or modifying it. The handoff is a test of understanding: Can the work still make sense when its creator is no longer there to translate it? The original author knows what every variable means, why a particular decision was made, which tool was used, and which parts can safely be changed. The second student has only what the project makes visible.

Generative AI makes the handoff more revealing because it lowers the cost of producing a convincing first version. Students can generate code, analysis, prose, visualizations, and prototypes far more quickly than they could a few years ago. In a classroom, however, a project is useful only insofar as it shows what the student understands and can defend.…