[odipar]

As always it is the journey that matters (writing), not the outcome (the essay).

For example, students could record their writing of an essay with a keylogger or something.

Additionally - with the use of some advanced zero-knowledge algos or crypto timestamp provenance - it should be possible to prove that they have written the essay, without revealing their recording.

[ekanes]

Yes, sort of, though if the economic incentive was high enough, someone could connect the AI to input through the keyboard and "type" out the essay. At scale it would be cheap. You could record video of you typing, which would work for some time until at some point video fakes get advanced enough... sigh.