At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
Day before first class of the fall. I have a firm AI policy (none), but so does the college at which I teach (literally: “more!”) I don’t think anyone outside education fully appreciates how quickly this has overwhelmed… everything. I’m excited to teach again, but I also already feel… very sad.
New school year off to a stumble w/ three major higher ed AI fallacies: 1. “We must embrace it because it’s here to stay.” So are radioactive waste & heroin. 2. “MY students would never cheat.” A statement about the speaker’s ego, not their students. 3. “I can always tell.” Sure thing, Sherlock.
The college at which I teach, Dartmouth, rose from 200-something to #6 for free speech in FIRE’s rankings. I believe this is misleading. This feels to me & many colleagues like the most restrictive atmosphere we can recall. & many students tell me confidentially they censor themselves about AI.
Talking to my college students, I think AI is hitting higher ed faster than even doomers think. Student tells me that since most of their classes have switched to in-class writing—no more research papers, no more revision—they felt uneasy doing the more substantive writing needed for a summer job.
Artificial Intelligence and Creative Writing: A Policy of Sorts. I've posted versions before, but I update this each term following conversations with students. Here's my Fall '26 edition. In no way definitive! Learning as I go.
Is AI gonna kill us by launching nukes or whatever? Dunno, but I'm more puzzled at the leftists & liberals saying "akshually" to the idea--and the window it opens for regulation--because the whether or not *that's* true, AI is most definitely going to accelerate climate change catastrophically.
I'm charged today with giving a short talk to 150 incoming college first-years. You know, welcome & encouragement & maybe a bit of "what college means now." I want to welcome them, & encourage them! But I feel I'd be dishonest if I didn't speak to the hour--white nationalism, AI, 1.5 celsius...
My 13 made a comic about AI. Books, instrument, brains, poured into mush-amatic feeding into data center (Pandora’s box) which grows exploding AI skin—fumes kill birds—being licked by tech bro while smiling AI goober looks on, and two critics—the upper one is me—grimace.
It boggles my mind that I have colleagues who insist they’d recognize AI work. This kind of denialism of a problem borders in scale if not importance on anti-vaxxerism.
