Will AI Make Peer Notetakers Obsolete? | Magazine

On March 20, Aria-Vue L. Daugherty ’29 was peddling on a rented city bike when a black SUV slammed into her.

Having just visited a friend at Georgetown, Daugherty was gearing up for her next Harvard College Debating Union tournament in Washington, D.C. After the crash, she finished her first round of debate before noticing her vision blurring, prompting her to walk to the George Washington University Hospital.

The incident left Daugherty in the emergency department for seven and a half hours with a hefty concussion.

When she returned to campus the following Monday, she relied heavily on Harvard’s Peer Notetaker service for her classes, as provided by the Disability Access Office. Due to her existing medical accommodations with the DAO, Daugherty says the program was always accessible to her — but now became even more necessary.

“I really wasn’t gripping anything because I was recovering from the concussion,” Daugherty says, adding, “being able to go back and look at the notes that someone else had taken for that class was way more helpful than looking at my own notes.”

The DAO’s Peer Notetaker service offers students a $600 stipend per eligible course to share lecture notes with accommodated students. Approximately 50 undergraduates and students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences qualify for the accommodation each year, with 84 students hired as notetakers for the 2025-26 school year.

Even with the rise of artificial intelligence platforms such as Claude or NotebookLM that can instantly turn slideshows or recordings into a set of notes, Daugherty and other Harvard students find that the DAO’s program offers an essential, human component that AI still cannot replicate. At least for now.

After a rough combination of Covid-19 and her pre-existing medical condition, Daugherty took a medical leave of absence during her first year at the College. Since she’s returned, she says the peer notetaking program has continued to be helpful on the days…

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