Something feels different this semester. Has anyone else noticed a massive spike in their professors encouraging AI use? I'm a computer science student, and before it was considered heresy to use AI, but now every single class I'm in either permits it or outright promotes it. I have a coworker who's a business major, and she says it's the same deal for her.
On one hand, the world is undeniably changing, so it seems inevitable that education would be forced to incorporate this new technology at some point. The vibe I get from some of my professors is like "Well, you're probably all using it anyway, so we might as well teach you how to do so responsibly." I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Regardless of what field you're going into, it's likely that most of our professional lives after college will involve AI to some extent as well, so learning how to use it here does make sense.
On the other hand, it all feels sort of cynical to me. I worry that we're caught in the midst of a serious curricular atrophy — that having this magic answer box available at all times will deteriorate new university students' concepts of what it means to study and learn. It sucked at the time, but in retrospect I'm actually glad that I had to muscle through my difficult engineering classes with nothing but TA hours and grit, because it gave me a much deeper understanding of the material than if I had just used AI to explain everything. Even using AI as a tutor, I think having to sit and feel frustrated by a question is part of what makes the answer stick when you finally figure it out.
Also the way professors are doing a total 180 and now actively telling students to use ChatGPT makes me question the extent to which a private tech company is shaping our curriculum...
Have you noticed similar changes in your classes? If so, how do you feel about them?