This is such a grand title, but the conclusions are surprisingly tame.
- The take-home projects and papers are useless for grading purposes because of AI cheating. Time for more oral exams.
Yep, the only real change from AI. This used to be $50/page from diploma mill and this was expensive enough to dissuade most people. Now it's almost free, and cheating is rampant.
I think author's hope for oral exams is too optimistic, that is too expensive. Good old written exams, either in blue books or on special locked-down devices, proctored to prevent cheating, will be a way to go.
- It makes no sense for professors to stand in front of large classes and deliver lectures. They should do small, interactive seminars.
I don't see what this has to do with AI? Ever since VCR was invented, professors doing non-interactive lectures could be replaced with recordings. Either there is a "human element" in those, in which case it's still there, AI or not; or it's just pure information transfer, in which case AI is just an inferior version of recorded lecture with worse presentation style and hallucinations.
- Professors should teach about AI, include how to prompt efficiently and how to critically scrutinize the output
100% agree, as with any important technology. But this is just a small curriculum change, just one more topic to cover in the lecture, and maybe a class.
---
Overall, I believe that modern university is pretty bad and should be changed, but I hardly think that AI made this problem significantly worse, and this essay really did not convince me of that.
- The take-home projects and papers are useless for grading purposes because of AI cheating. Time for more oral exams.
Yep, the only real change from AI. This used to be $50/page from diploma mill and this was expensive enough to dissuade most people. Now it's almost free, and cheating is rampant.
I think author's hope for oral exams is too optimistic, that is too expensive. Good old written exams, either in blue books or on special locked-down devices, proctored to prevent cheating, will be a way to go.
- It makes no sense for professors to stand in front of large classes and deliver lectures. They should do small, interactive seminars.
I don't see what this has to do with AI? Ever since VCR was invented, professors doing non-interactive lectures could be replaced with recordings. Either there is a "human element" in those, in which case it's still there, AI or not; or it's just pure information transfer, in which case AI is just an inferior version of recorded lecture with worse presentation style and hallucinations.
- Professors should teach about AI, include how to prompt efficiently and how to critically scrutinize the output
100% agree, as with any important technology. But this is just a small curriculum change, just one more topic to cover in the lecture, and maybe a class.
---
Overall, I believe that modern university is pretty bad and should be changed, but I hardly think that AI made this problem significantly worse, and this essay really did not convince me of that.