The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has raised concerns about candidates using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to impersonate individuals and claim having albinism in a bid to cheat during examinations.

The development comes one month after JAMB exposed a case where a blind candidate hired someone else with visual impairment to take the 2025 UTME on his behalf.

According to the examination body, some candidates have been caught using AI-powered tools to disguise themselves as individuals with albinism, with the intention of exploiting the special concessions granted to candidates with disabilities.

The Board’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, stated this at the weekend while monitoring the mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja.

According to the JAMB boss, the use of AI in this manner was a new tactic employed by some candidates to cheat in the just concluded mop-up exercise.

Prof. Oloyede noted that JAMB became suspicious when the number of candidates with albinism registering for the exam skyrocketed from 100 per year to 1,787, marking a staggering 1,687 per cent increase.

He said: “We have never had even up to 100 albinos any year. But this year you have 1,787 albinos. Those who declared to be albino, 1,787.

“So, out of 2 million. And we now found out that one (CBT) centre registered 450 out of this 1,000. As if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that centre.

“Why are they sourcing a number of albinos? They are not albinos. It is because the AI that they were using had certain features. That if they do not declare themselves as albino in our form, you will look critically more.

“Because it makes it reddish. The colour. So, when one of those arrested or one of those in custody now gave information that, ‘Look, I will tell you. This is the first step towards it.’

“So, we now go after all those who claimed to be albino. And we found out that all the albinos are less than 250.

“You can see the black man arrested (in Benin) claiming to be an albino. How do you become albino? But that is one of their strategies. To declare that they are albino. Because what they do is that if you want to impersonate him, they will take the picture of two of you. And then blend it. When you look at the picture, it will look like you. That’s what the AI is doing now. It’s picture blending.”

Oloyede stated that the Board has implemented measures to detect and prevent such malpractice, including the use of advanced biometric verification and AI-detection tools.

The JAMB boss warned candidates against attempting to use such tactics, emphasizing that any candidate found guilty of malpractice would face severe penalties, including being banned from taking the examination for a specified period.

He advised candidates to focus on preparing honestly and thoroughly for the examination, assuring that the examination body will continue to innovate and adapt to new technologies.

The development has sparked a debate about the use of technology in examinations and the need for strict measures to prevent cheating.