Try to shape AI’s impact on learning, or be redefined by it
Try to shape AI’s impact on learning, or be redefined by it
Publish Date: 2026-02-23 09:04:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
What happens to a college education when a chatbot can draft an essay, summarize a reading and generate computer code in seconds? The arrival of artificial intelligence in college classrooms has been swift and, for many schools, disorienting.
As professors of economics and business management and biology at liberal arts colleges, we are confronting a question that now cuts across all colleges and universities: What is the purpose of a college education, as AI is rapidly reshaping how students think, learn and prepare for careers?
While much of the public debate has focused on plagiarism and credit for student work, the deeper issue extends beyond rule-setting.
Across higher education, most schools have issued guidance on how students should use AI, rather than adopted sweeping mandates.
Liberal arts colleges, like the University of Richmond, Bard College and Trinity College, tend to emphasize the importance of students using AI ethically and responsibly, and typically allow students to use AI when they cite it and their instructor permits it. These schools also allow professors to individually determine their own AI policies.
A 2024 study of 116 research universities found similar patterns, with instructors largely determining course policies and few campus-wide bans.
What’s unsettled is not whether students can use AI, but how institutions want students to use it. In our view, unless colleges clearly shape AI’s role in teaching and learning, fast-moving technologies may begin to redefine education by default. The risk isn’t more AI, but a gradual shift in what counts as learning.
Students may spend less time asking hard questions, making their own judgments and building real expertise. In that case, college risks becoming less about understanding and more about producing papers and other content quickly.
Letting AI into the classroom
When generative AI tools first became widely available in late 2022 and early 2023, most professors…
