On Saturday, a YouTube creator known as ChromaLock revealed a video detailing how he modified a Texas Devices TI-84 graphing calculator to hook up with the web and entry OpenAI’s ChatGPT, probably enabling college students to cheat on checks. The video, titled “I Made the Final Dishonest Gadget,” demonstrates a customized {hardware} modification that enables customers of the graphing calculator to sort in issues despatched to ChatGPT utilizing the keypad and obtain dwell responses on the display.
ChromaLock started by exploring the calculator’s hyperlink port, sometimes used for transferring instructional packages between units. He then designed a customized circuit board he calls “TI-32” that includes a tiny Wi-Fi-enabled microcontroller, the Seed Studio ESP32-C3 (which prices about $5), together with different parts to interface with the calculator’s methods.
It is price noting that the TI-32 hack is not a business challenge. Replicating ChromaLock’s work would contain buying a TI-84 calculator, a Seed Studio ESP32-C3 microcontroller, and numerous digital parts, and fabricating a customized PCB primarily based on ChromaLock’s design, which is out there on-line.
The creator says he encountered a number of engineering challenges throughout improvement, together with voltage incompatibilities and sign integrity points. After creating a number of variations, ChromaLock efficiently put in the customized board into the calculator’s housing with none seen indicators of modifications from the surface.
To accompany the {hardware}, ChromaLock developed customized software program for the microcontroller and the calculator, which is obtainable open supply on GitHub. The system simulates one other TI-84, permitting individuals to make use of the calculator’s built-in “ship” and “get” instructions to switch recordsdata. This permits a person to simply obtain a launcher program that gives entry to numerous “applets” designed for dishonest.
One of many applets is a ChatGPT interface that could be most helpful for answering brief questions, but it surely has a downside in that it is sluggish and cumbersome to sort in lengthy alphanumeric questions on the restricted keypad.
Past the ChatGPT interface, the system affords a number of different dishonest instruments. A picture browser permits customers to entry pre-prepared visible aids saved on the central server. The app browser function permits college students to obtain not solely video games for post-exam leisure but additionally text-based cheat sheets disguised as program supply code. ChromaLock even hinted at a future video discussing a digicam function, although particulars have been sparse within the present demo.
ChromaLock claims his new system can bypass widespread anti-cheating measures. The launcher program could be downloaded on-demand, avoiding detection if a instructor inspects or clears the calculator’s reminiscence earlier than a check. The modification can even supposedly break calculators out of Take a look at Mode, a locked-down state used to stop dishonest.
Whereas the video presents the challenge as a technical achievement, consulting ChatGPT throughout a check in your calculator nearly actually represents an moral breach and/or a type of tutorial dishonesty that would get you in deep trouble at most faculties. So tread fastidiously, research exhausting, and keep in mind to eat your Wheaties.
This story initially appeared on Ars Technica.
