Posted on 09/28/2026 12:02:18 PM PDT by SmokingJoe
Researchers proved AI has deleted every reason universities exist.
Harvard University ran a controlled experiment pitting a custom AI against their own top-tier classrooms.
And the results are going to collapse the higher education bubble.
They took 194 undergraduates and split them up.
One group learned physics in one of Harvard’s best hands-on, active-learning physical classrooms. Group work. Instructor support. The premium university experience.
The other group went home and learned the exact same material with an AI tutor.
The AI didn't just win. It embarrassed the institution.
Students using the AI learned more than twice as much as the students in the elite Harvard classroom.
They scored 30% higher on the final assessment.
And they did it in less time.
Let that sink in.
A piece of software sitting on a laptop outperformed a world-class faculty in one of the most elite learning environments on Earth.
Universities have always justified their exorbitant tuition with two things: access to elite knowledge and the physical classroom experience.
This study just proved both of those moats are gone.
When software can teach you complex physics twice as well as a $60,000-a-year institution, the math of higher education breaks permanently.
The AI didn't just give the students answers. It used strict pedagogical guardrails. It guided. It questioned. It forced the students to do the cognitive work.
It offered perfect, one-to-one tutoring, personalized to the exact moment a student misunderstood a concept.
That level of attention is mathematically impossible to scale in a physical lecture hall.
For a thousand years, the university was the only place to get a premium education.
Now, it’s the bottleneck.
If AI can double your learning speed for a fraction of the cost, what exactly are students taking on decades of debt to pay for?
Great news!! Now I can pursue my Ebonics degree without the expense.
This gives me hope. AI is going to learn Woke subjects and that are part of useless programs and become unemployable.
When the first semester or year grades come out, there’s a big move away from STEM and premed by the students who don’t do well. They transfer over to other departments where they get better grades.
The anti-education crowd that so prevalent on this site will never understand that. They view the university as a trade school.
Where can one access the course referenced in this article?
A long time ago I tested out an algebra inter-active tutor online. I was astonished. It was like having the math teaching looking over your shoulder and identifying your mistakes as you made them and explaining why it was a mistake. I couldn’t understand why anyone could not make an A.
Re: 15 - agree with you on connections. Can really take place at many schools.
Have a friend whose daughter went to law school and summer interned at a law firm - did 60-65 hour weeks, but that work over the summer paid for her tuition.
Ended up getting hired by that firm. No student loan debt and great salary. Working 60-70 hour weeks, but loves it.
I took the Freshman physics tier that was required of engineering majors. The lectures were quite entertaining with dynamic demonstrations. Twice a week three hour labs were challenging. I don’t see how AI could run a lab. I don’t recall class seasons too well. I think that’s because of the weekly quizzes. As it was, the course bled off a number of hopeful engineers.
Hollywood is also in the crosshairs.
Most reasonably intelligent children can probably get their high school education done by the time they are 14, at most, if they use AI.
The constant feedback and discussion should speed things up remarkably.
One problem I see with this is it will encourage university administration to eliminate real physical labs do it all via computer simulation. The driver here is the O&M costs in maintaining undergraduate engineering\physics (even chemistry!) labs. I’ve talked to several friends who are profs and they tell me there is huge pressure to do this in undergraduate instruction.
Well, that's absolutely what we need ... engineers and scientists with zero hands-on experience with the real world.
Artificial "Intelligence" ==> Natural Stupidity
“The reason for the elite universities (not the state universities) is social networking, not education.”
Exactly ! It is also a Regime loyalty designator, just getting into an Ivy means they have qualified you as a Regime obeyer.
Good for you.
I agree on “group work” - usually means one person does the thinking and actual work and there’s at least on that does almost nothing.
I use AI every day. I can extend my understanding on anything - compare ideas, contrast technologies, build out system architectures.
When used appopriately, it’s help is staggering. We’re in a new Industrial Revolution.
Schools do allow that. They are called "forever students". Then you I and I get to pay off the loans.
Those 16MEV accelerators and 24,000 pound mass selection magnets are real bummers for mom and dad to get into the dining room.
thank you
lol
Artificial “Intelligence” ==> Natural Stupidity “
You cannot be serious.
Nothing in your post makes sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.