Cognitive Surrender

Colleges and professors are grappling with how to respond to students’ growing use of artificial intelligence. Much of the debate has focused on cheating – students using AI to write papers, solve problems, and complete assignments. But educators are increasingly worried about something deeper: What happens when students surrender their learning and critical thinking to a machine? Academic integrity is severely compromised on college campuses. At Princeton, administrators recently abandoned the university’s 133-year-old honor code following widespread unauthorized use of AI. At the University of Illinois, professors called out students for using AI to write apology emails after skipping class. And at Stanford, some undergraduates openly acknowledge they’re there not to learn anything but to join the university’s ‘plutocracy network.’ Roberto Serrano, an economics professor at Brown University, warns that without higher standards, greater oversight and a stronger emphasis on ethics, students risk surrendering their intellectual growth to machines. After suspecting widespread AI use on a midterm, Serrano confronted students about why they were at the university in the first place. “If you think that your solution to a problem is just to press a button so that an AI agent does the answer for you, you're showing the world you're completely irrelevant,” he said. “Why would anybody hire you?”In this episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza travels to Providence, where Serrano is exploring AI surveillance to combat AI-assisted cheating. He argues colleges must adapt quickly before technology fundamentally changes how students learn.“We cannot have a civilization in which technology is driving the car, and humans are in the backseat,” he said. “The humans should be continuing to drive the car. We cannot choose to become idiots.”Then, Kirk speaks with Harvard economist Bridget Terry Long, who studies the transition from high school to higher education, about how colleges are adapting to AI and what tech’s growing influence means for students and families making decisions about life after high school.Related links: ‘Cognitive surrender’: Are college students who use AI really learning? With AI common on campus, some educators are leaning in Rather than AI, this professor chooses a chalkboard and old-fashioned books American Academy of Arts and Sciences report: Thriving After High School: Community, School, Service, and Work  Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza Editors: Adeline Sire and Matt BaskinExecutive Producer: Azita Ghahramani Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary MottTheme Song and original music: Left-RomanArtwork: Matt Welch Project Manager: Isabel HibbardConsulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins“College Uncovered” is a production of GBH News