Your Career

How to find a middle ground on a technology that is unavoidable for virtually every discipline

What does it mean to teach in a world where machines simulate human thought? How do you prepare students for a future in which “authenticity” is mediated by algorithms? When confronted with tools like ChatGPT, faculty members tend to cluster around one of two extremes — uncritical acceptance of AI as inevitable or outright rejection of it as an ethical threat. But clinging to either view obscures the real challenge: how to develop thoughtful, practical approaches to deal with this shifting landscape.

It’s unclear how teaching and learning will be affected by the new wave of AI features that mimic human reasoning. The technology is evolving in real time. That is why faculty members — from every department — must find a middle ground on AI. The question isn’t whether to participate in these systems — you already do — but rather, how to engage with them critically and intentionally. Students deserve spaces where such inquiry is welcome. They deserve more than boilerplate policies, whether you’re an advocate of AI or an opponent.

Continue reading: "Adopt or Resist? Beyond the AI Culture Wars,” by Marc Watkins

Share your suggestions for the newsletter with Denise Magner, an editor at The Chronicle, at denise.magner@chronicle.com.

What we’re reading

Here’s more on career issues and trends from around the web. See something we should include? Let me know.

• Tips in Harvard Business Review on what to do when a colleague “is jealous of your success.”
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