Shouldn't College Be for Learning?

"That attention-grabbing headline is a bit misleading, because as Purser makes clear in the article, it is not "AI" itself that is destroying these things. The source of the problem is human beings, primarily the human beings in charge of universities that have looked at the offerings from tech companies and, failing to recognize the vampire prepared to drain their institutions of their life force, not only invite them across the threshold but declare them their new bosom buddies."

"Dartmouth University recently announced a deal with Anthropic/Amazon Web Services that university president Sian Beilock declared "is more than a collaboration." The promises are familiar, using AI "to augment-not replace-student learning," as though this is something we know how to do, and that this is best explored en masse across all aspects of the university simultaneously, rather than through careful experimentation. I think I understand some of the motivation to these kinds of deals-to seize some sense of agency in uncertain times-but the idea that even an institution as august as Dartmouth with such a long history in the development of artificial intelligence will be "collaborators" with these two entities is wishful thinking, IMO."

Human choices by university administrations, not AI itself, are undermining academic autonomy and the quality of learning. Many universities are signing large-scale partnerships with technology firms that promise to "augment—not replace—student learning" while avoiding careful pilot testing. Such deals often prioritize expedient market-facing responses over consultation, faculty collaboration, or coherent pedagogical vision. Motivations include a desire to seize agency amid uncertainty, but mass adoption risks eroding institutional control and educational integrity. Even institutions with deep AI histories are making optimistic commitments to corporate collaborators. Faculty surveys report significant fear and angst about these rapid, top-down implementations.

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