To put it as clearly as I can: Artificial Intelligence has no rightful place in academia. Admittedly, AI has become a vital tool in corporate America. It has the potential to significantly improve employee efficiency, increase consumer satisfaction, and raise profits. Replacing rote mechanics with AI, such as an engineer using AI to reduce the time it takes to finish coding models, is one way in which AI enhances efficiency in the workplace. However, this use implies a baseline understanding of the material underlying the project. The engineer understands the concepts of what they must code and utilizes AI solely to reduce the time spent on a project. The true problem arises when AI is routinely employed in academia, where learning and education should be prioritized above profits and efficiency. Students must learn on their own before resorting to AI. This may simply be the rant of a student who studies arguably the two academic fields most negatively impacted by AI, English and History, but I hope my argument resonates with some. 

My biggest issue with AI in educational settings is that many—if not most—students are not using AI purely to be more efficient. Instead, they are brazenly abusing it to complete the entirety of their work. For example, when students use AI to write an essay, they are not just using a mental aid. They are actively replacing themselves in the equation. By doing this, students fail to grow as learners; they merely become voiceless, faceless, prompt engineers. They slowly erode any modicum of intellectual curiosity or critical thinking they may have under the misguided notion that they are taking advantage of the resources at their disposal. Critical thinking is already on a sharp decline with growing rates of social media use and diminishing rates of reading. Using AI to replace one’s own thought process compounds a threat that is already far too prevalent in society.

The worst of it is that they not only harm themselves, but they also harm those around them in the process. The concerningly rapid rise of grade inflation, where professors are pressured to begrudgingly hand out As and Bs for mediocre work, only makes it more difficult for intelligent, driven students to stand out on a transcript when compared to students who manage to turn in AI-generated drivel that remains undetected for four years. 

The most commonly offered justification for AI usage in academic work is that the subject matter is irrelevant to one’s chosen career path. However, stating “I do not care” is not a valid excuse to willfully cheat through courses. We are all taught from a young age that cheating is wrong in any situation. Flippant apathy is not a reasonable defense for cheating. Critical thinking is the basis of a college education. The entire point of formulating one’s own unique thoughts and applying them to college courses is that it is supposed to be laborious. Cheating defeats the purpose of obtaining an education. Contrary to seemingly popular belief, the core curriculum—a broad set of courses taken by all students across disciplines—is not arbitrary or useless. Every course is intentionally selected to improve overall academic enrichment. Future doctors and engineers need a better understanding of the literature and history of this world, and, conversely, future lawyers and journalists need a more robust understanding of the sciences and maths that make up our universe. They do not need to know these subjects for their future careers; they do, however, need to learn these purportedly irrelevant subjects to become better, more well-rounded humans. 

Unfortunately, the negative impacts of AI go far beyond academics. These bad habits seep into the everyday lives of students. It becomes a crutch for the brain, or worse, a replacement, that students use to complete basic tasks from writing emails to researching topics. The mental effort needed to critically read an article or think through a professional email is no longer required. In simpler terms, thinking ceases to be necessary. The erosion of critical thinking is not immediate; students’ critical thinking skills do not fall off a cliff overnight. The attrition of thought is insidious. Slowly, day by day, students lose the very critical thinking skills that a college education intends to improve. Consequently, students become increasingly susceptible to propaganda, emotion-fueled arguments lacking logic, fake news, and other sources of misinformation. What is equally concerning is that these developments are swiftly accelerating in prevalence due to the introduction of AI, perpetuating a cycle of mass disinformation coupled with a sharp decline in critical thinking and media literacy. 

The environment is also being actively harmed as a result of people’s stubborn refusal to think for themselves. The world is faced with a rapidly increasing need for electricity and fresh water, largely because students have become too obsessed with productivity and efficiency over quality. Many, on the other hand, are contributing to environmental degradation out of sheer laziness and a lack of will to put in effort into their studies. Electric power requirements of the United States alone rose from 2,688 megawatts to 5,341 megawatts in just a single year, from 2022 to 2023, largely due to the emerging growth of AI resources such as ChatGPT. AI use is far too valuable a resource in corporate America and in future human innovation to be eliminated, but reducing unnecessary usage is a much-needed step. An influential healthcare company saving months on a project may be a scenario where the benefits to society outweigh the potential harms. The loss of critical thinking and creativity that comes with the minor improvement in efficiency of an AI-written essay or email is not such a scenario.

My opinion may be an unpopular one. After all, we are geared as a society to chase the quickest route to a destination with little regard to the pitfalls that may lie ahead. Artificial Intelligence is here to stay; it is a tool that has the potential to revolutionize many sectors of the world for the better. My only hope is that we utilize it responsibly and with restraint, even as all signs point to us increasingly using it in excess. One thing is for certain: the ability to think critically and creatively will soon rise in demand as it grows in scarcity. Read, write, and articulate your thoughts as often as possible. It will only become more important.