How AI Is Changing Higher Education

Artificial intelligence has disrupted college classrooms and other aspects of higher education at a dizzying pace.

AI has been around for years; think spell-check. But the adoption of generative AI in higher education was supercharged by ChatGPT, the language-learning model released by OpenAI in late 2022. So far, colleges have not widely embraced gen AI, as it’s known. Many colleges still don’t have updated policies on using AI.

The tepid reaction to AI is most obvious among professors, who are concerned that students are using ChatGPT to cheat. One professor recently told The Chronicle that an estimated 25 percent of his students were using gen AI in their assignments.

Colleges have struggled to manage the rise in academic-integrity complaints involving generative AI, which stretch the bounds of policies that were crafted primarily to deal with plagiarism. It’s difficult to prove that students used AI in assignments.

Not everyone is opposed to AI’s growth in higher education. Some professors are eager to experiment with ChatGPT and other gen-AI models in the classroom. They say doing so can help students learn how to use AI ethically, analyze the tools critically, and even improve writing skills. AI chatbots can offer students personalized tutoring and mental-health support.

Colleges are also using gen AI to improve efficiency. An admissions office can use AI to flag which high schools on a recruitment list are most likely to produce students who enroll. A marketing office can use AI to churn out text for blog posts and ads promoting the college.

As ChatGPT and other generative-AI tools evolve, higher education will have to answer important questions — such as where to draw lines on AI use and how to train faculty and staff members on AI literacy.