u/Apprehensive_Elk9715

AI in education is becoming less about cheating and more about what happens to students' ability to think for themselves. Fei-Fei Li's point got me thinking: if a student can ask AI for every answer, write every paper, explain every problem, and even generate ideas, at what point does the student stop actually learning?

I don't think the answer is simply banning AI. Students will use these tools outside school anyway. The bigger issue is teaching students when to use AI and when to put it away and struggle through the problem themselves. A calculator can give you the answer, but you still need to understand the math. With AI, the line is much blurrier since it can produce the explanation, argument, research direction, and even the final answer. Maybe the real challenge for education is not stopping students from using AI, but making sure AI doesn't become their brain on subscription.

Professor: "Can you explain what this word means?"

Student: "Eeehh... aaah... it means..."

Silence.

Professor: "Go on."

Student: "..."

Professor: "You used it three times in your paper."

Student: "..."

Professor: "If this isn't your work, we may have to refer this to the Academic Integrity Committee."

Student: "You know what... just give me the zero."

It's funny how some students will argue for twenty minutes that they wrote every single word, then the moment the academic integrity policy enters the conversation, they're suddenly perfectly happy to take the zero.

Professors, what's the fastest "just give me the zero" moment you've ever had?