At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/

This is at Dartmouth College, where our president cut a deal with Anthropic--which stole the books of 133 faculty--without faculty consultation. Soon, there'll be a Claude for every student. They're already there. They feel like there's no escaping it. & they don't like it.

I wish I could tell you the responses thrummed with defiance. Instead, some read like substance abuse testimonies. A student whose use of AI grew until AI "wrote" all assignments sophomore fall. Got caught. Crushed by shame. Swore it off. But it's creeping back, & they don't know how to stop. 3/

(To be clear: I asked for anonymous responses so students could speak candidly & I could share comments.) A number of students wrote of their hate for AI, their disdain for friends who use it to do all their work, & then they said they "only" use it summarize readings or do research. 4/

Nobody used the term "arms race," but that's what they're describing: enormous pressure, including from some professors, to use AI or fall behind those who are. Many say they hate it, don't want to use it, but they feel like now it's submit or fail. 5/

Another student wrote with deep fury about AI taking over their education and wrecking mental health. They used to not touch it. Now, they use it to "supplement" their work in econ & math classes. They feel betrayed by the college and their teachers and themselves. 6/

I just learned that the term "carbon footprint" was developed by BP to offload responsibility for climate change onto individuals. Something like that's happening in higher ed with AI. Institutions capitulate or dodge; students are submitting; & they believe it's their individual failing. 7/

One student wrote of the belief among their classmates in another course that their professor had turned to "robograding," outsourcing evaluation of their work to AI. So why not use AI to write it? This student knows how cynical that is. It doesn't feel good. They wish there was another way. 8/

Several students wrote of the moral confusion implicit in a college that promotes AI and says don't cheat but makes it really, really easy to cheat. One said they don't pay attention to AI policies because they don't think the college really wants to know what's going on. 9/

One student, who wrote of trying and sometimes succeeding at cutting AI out of their life, wrote of watching a parent who is a lawyer turn over all their legal writing to AI. Almost every student wrote of how much AI is present in everyone's love lives. 10/

Such a system will create conditions in which nobody's clear on what counts as "cheating." Some students who use AI to summarize readings for them don't think of that as cheating. It's about downloading the knowledge, right? (Wrong.) Worse, some faculty are iffy about it. 12/

One student noted that grade inflation is so pervasive that ethics policies around cheating have become hollow. This student said the only real guidance they felt they have about AI use is their own moral compass. They feel abandoned. 13/

(The answer to grade inflation, btw, isn't "tougher" grading. It's recognizing that grading, especially letter grading--not a very old system--serves employers but not students. It incentivizes cheating & corruption. Other evaluative frameworks are possible.)

Some people are asking if there were any "AI optimists." Many students would say something about how AI can be valuable for some things. But I was asking how it effects their education. In my small sample, no, nobody really described it as *improving* their education.

I've had a couple students plausibly report, anonymously, that they've never willingly gone near AI. (I say "willingly," because there are faculty who require it.) They're outliers, &, in their responses, part of that tiny cohort that's unaware of & immune to peer pressure.

There are other students who write of being able to imagine how AI could be valuable, or even interesting uses they've encountered in, say, computer science courses. But they express real dismay, to the point of despair, over the corporate complicity & enviro degradation involved.

A number of older students say they're glad they're getting out of college now, and they feel sorry for younger siblings and students for whom AI is so much more crushing that they'll have far fewer experiences of learning on their own.

Interestingly, nobody wrote about deepfakes and the problem created by AI of knowing what's real. I'm not sure if this is a good sign or a very bad one, evidence that "real" is less and less of a top concern.

I asked those who wanted to comment to print out their thoughts--no identifying handwriting, which, yeah, I get the irony--and then I'd leave the room so they could put them in a pile, or they cld leave them at my office. I really didn't want to know who wrote what.

Last and least, FWIW, my current AI policy for students. Subject to revision. Recommendations welcome.

I retired a year ago, and I was already seeing use of AI by students in an online statistical programming course I taught. I get the sense that I retired on the cusp of the complete breakdown in higher ed, which is based on independent student work done without supervision.

😢tears for all the myriad of forms & places of higher education which will be lost & which so many here & around the world hold dear. When the young generations of today mature & realize whats been lost may they have the abilities needed to work on repairing Ed back to fullness.

I’m Dean of a seminary now and our grad students have asked for a NO AI Allowed policy. We’re working together on it now. They are compiling a list of learning support resources that don’t rely on generative AI. It’s harder and harder to do.

Damn this is so - I don’t know what. I have two kids in college and one in grad school and this captures so many of their feelings. Thank you for putting this out there.

I am both glad that I graduated years before genAI and LLMs were introduced to the public, and utterly frightened for my niblings who will be starting grade school next year. This is just dystopic.

Your entire society, from the top down, especially from the top, is telling kids that you cheat to win and if you don’t cheat you’re a loser. It’s corrosive. Corrosion weakens and ultimately destroys. Last night’s football match was just a small illustration of this.

Was thinking about this with the 2 ai finals I discovered grading finals - one I realized had done every assignment using some amount of ai (all the rest of the students made sketches etc, so it really threw me). But can I blame them? The university is buying this crap, why shouldn’t they use it?