The Humanities Under Threat: Professors Grapple with AI’s Impact on Critical Thinking

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms education, professors in the humanities are facing an unprecedented challenge. Concerns are mounting that AI tools, while offering benefits in other fields, pose a unique threat to the development of critical thinking skills and the highly purpose of a liberal arts education. From concerns about academic integrity to existential questions about the future of human intelligence, educators are scrambling to adapt to a landscape upended by generative AI.

The Erosion of Traditional Learning

Lea Pao, an assistant professor of German Studies at Stanford University and director of undergraduate studies, has been experimenting with methods to encourage offline learning. Her efforts include having students memorize poems, participate in recitations, and engage with art in person—all aimed at reconnecting them to the “bodily experience of learning” and reducing reliance on AI for completing assignments. Stanford University

Despite these efforts, Pao has encountered instances where students circumvent these methods. In one case, a student submitted a seemingly perfect reflection on a museum visit, despite the museum being closed on the day the assignment was due, revealing the employ of AI. This highlights a growing trend: students turning to AI not as a tool for learning, but as a substitute for it.

A Productivity Boost in STEM vs. An Existential Threat to the Humanities

While faculty in the hard sciences and social sciences often point to AI’s potential to boost productivity and unlock research opportunities through data analysis, the humanities face a different reality. Many scholars view AI as a fundamental threat, extending beyond simple cheating and questioning the future of higher education itself. The potential for AI to increasingly substitute independent thought raises urgent questions about the value of a university education, particularly as tuition costs continue to rise and public confidence in higher education declines.

Despair and Adaptation in the Classroom

Professors across the country express frustration and concern. One professor described the situation as “driving so many of us up the wall,” while another stated that generative AI is “the bane of my existence,” even expressing a desire to “push ChatGPT off a cliff.” The Guardian

Dora Zhang, a literature professor at the University of California, Berkeley, frames the issue as existential, questioning what AI is “doing to us as a species.” Concerns extend to the potential for AI to negatively impact cognitive abilities and critical thinking skills, with some warning that universities may be inadvertently “self-lobotomizing” by embracing the technology uncritically.

Universities Respond – and the Divide Widens

Some universities are actively integrating AI into their curricula. Ohio State University, for example, has launched an “AI fluent” initiative, requiring all freshmen to take a course in generative AI. However, the practical implications of such programs remain unclear. Palantir CEO Alex Karp predicted that AI will “destroy humanities jobs,” while Anthropic president Daniela Amodei argued that studying the humanities will be “more important than ever.”

There are fears that AI will exacerbate existing inequalities in higher education, creating a two-tiered system where elite students receive a traditional liberal arts education while others are relegated to a “degraded, soulless form of vocational training administered by AI instructors.”

Combating AI: Novel Strategies and a Search for Solutions

With an estimated 92% of students reporting using AI in their coursework, professors are adopting various strategies to address the challenge. These include oral interrogations, handwritten assignments, increased emphasis on class participation, and transparency statements detailing students’ work processes. Some are even injecting random words into assignments to detect AI-generated content.

Many professors are too focusing on fostering critical thinking about technology itself, encouraging students to question the motives of tech companies and the potential downsides of constant connectivity. Eric Hayot, a comparative literature professor at Penn State University, emphasizes that tech companies aim to craft students “helpless” without their products.

A Call for Human Connection

Despite the challenges, many educators remain optimistic. They emphasize the importance of cultivating those uniquely human qualities that differentiate people from machines—qualities that a humanistic education seeks to nurture. As Lea Pao suggests, the goal is to support students become “happy human beings, who are able to take a walk, and experience things, and describe things for themselves.” The future of the humanities, and perhaps of education itself, may depend on reaffirming the value of these fundamental human experiences.