A Via Media on AI

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | August 6, 2026 | Elizabeth Chen

[karpov]

I was working in a public space when a nearby conversation caught my attention. One student told a colleague that she would be taking several difficult classes the next semester. He responded, “just use AI, and the classes will be really easy.” I sighed in disappointment.

Approximately 80% of undergraduate students worldwide use generative artificial intelligence to help with their coursework. AI can be a powerful tool for students in higher education, but only if they have already developed the ability to read and write effectively and to think critically. These fundamental skills are best developed independent of generative AI tools.

After all, relying solely on AI weakens students’ cognitive abilities. 90% of faculty in a recent survey believe that generative AI usage in higher education will diminish students’ critical thinking skills. Anthropic, the company that developed Claude, published a study that arrived at a similar conclusion. Students in higher education use Claude most often for higher-order cognitive tasks, which raises concerns that students may be “outsourcing cognitive abilities to AI.”

The same concern applies to writing skills. Many high school graduates struggle with writing, to the point where many of their new professors argue that they cannot write at all. If these students take college courses and prompt AI to generate essay outlines, they will never learn how to organize their thoughts logically. If they copy-paste written content from AI, the quality of their writing will not improve through higher education.

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: ai; college; llm

[ClearCase_guy]

Theoretically, AI is a tool which helps a competent craftsman create something — with less effort, less time, less cost, etc.

If we raise a generation which contains very few “competent craftsmen” then we really miss everything. Eventually (and with GPT-6, possibly right now) we will have a tool which does not need us very much at all. We won’t have to know what needs to be done. We won’t need to “suggest” or “steer”. We can just state a need (if we can figure that out) and the AI will go to work on a solution.

Human capability will be almost non-existent. Because what’s the point? Why work at anything? Why struggle to learn or to understand? Just kick back and let the problems get solved through mysterious processes which we no longer understand.

Might go badly for us. But probably too late to stop it.

[GOPJ]

With the low quality University system we have now it might make more sense to offer half price degrees. They pretend to offer classes - ‘students’ pretend to learn and the whole thing is over in 6 weeks. Is buying a degree that different than what’s happening now?

[fruser1]

For liberal arts degrees, blindly trusting AI is actually no different than blindly trusting your professor.

[BFW]

This generation will be known as then copy and paste generation.

NOTE: AI site owners are well aware that their products are being use by cheating students and could take steps to discourage that with water marking and content tags but will not do it until they are compelled to do so.