The Conversation - Will colleges welcome or shun AI?

In the journalism school where I began an adjunct teaching job this year, we have a strict policy against students using artificial intelligence technology, such as ChatGPT, as a writing tool. “Evidence of the use of AI in writing your stories will be viewed as an academic integrity violation,” the syllabus for my course states. “Remember that ChatGPT frequently ‘hallucinates’ and generates false information.”

But not all colleges and universities are taking the same approach. While some professors shun artificial intelligence as a tool that enables students to bypass the need to think about what they write, others are encouraging students to embrace AI because they’ll inevitably encounter it in the world of work.

The diversity of views on the use of AI in the classroom is reflected in a panel of four different scholars from different fields: Patricia A. Young of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Asim Ali of Auburn University; Shital Thekdi of the University of Richmond; and Nicholas Tampio of Fordham University.

Two of the professors either ban AI or urge caution with its use. The other two require its use in specific assignments they have designed for students to better understand AI and how it could radically reshape the careers that they are preparing to enter.

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