cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/71499854
A committee of professors and students spent 5 months studying how AI changed learning on campus, and the findings read like a warning to every university on the planet.
⭕ Study groups are disappearing.
⭕ Office hours are emptying out.
⭕ Problem sets and take-home exams no longer prove anything, because AI can produce credible solutions to almost any written assignment in the undergraduate curriculum.
⭕ Students who lean on chatbots lose mastery and confidence, and some slip into what the report calls cognitive surrender, reaching for AI at the first hint of struggle.
The committee warns MIT professors against replacing undergraduate research assistants with AI agents just because they’re cheaper, because a university exists to grow people, not output.
Right, I read that and I was like saving what money lmao I never got paid as an undergrad researcher
I worked in industry for 12 years at market rates after getting my MS degree. In years 10-12 we hired post-docs to do some fancy lab work and publish findings - I could do that work but I was focused on other concerns. Welp, thanks to 9-11 those other concerns lost their funding, but the lab work continued. I inquired about possibly serving as the next lab-tech… those post docs were being paid less than 1/3 what I was making at industry rates. They were still getting around mostly on their bicycles, catching rides with other people when needed, and they had pretty much as many years of study and lab experience after getting their MS as I did industry experience, they just chose to continue on the PhD and Post-doctoral track for some reason… maybe they really like bicycles?