My mother, who attended a small liberal arts college, used to tease my dad about his engineering degree. “You received training,” she’d say, “but I received an education.” She pushed me to attend Occidental for the same reason: it would teach me how to think, to learn for the sake of learning, regardless of whether it was for a salary. Pretentious, yes, but I knew she had a point. Now, nearly three years into my education here, I am surrounded by the message that thinking is overrated.
Until now, I’ve been able to cope with generative AI (GenAI). I’ve looked the other way when I’ve seen my friends using it and stopped picking fights with them when they send me AI content. I refuse to use it, academically or otherwise. Yet making the personal choice not to use GenAI is no longer sparing me from its effects. My professors have been changing their coursework and switching to Bluebook exams to prevent students from using GenAI. Some have spent a disproportionate amount of class time discussing their AI policies or what they consider ‘ethical’ ways of using GenAI. One even encouraged us to use it to prepare for class discussions.
This AI talk has frustrated me to no end. What’s the point of discussing if we’re just regurgitating what ChatGPT told us to say? What’s the point of paying all of this tuition money to have a computer do your work? I’ve been asking myself these questions over and over, feeling like a lunatic. Am I a Luddite doomed to be crushed by the wheels of progress? I want my peers at Occidental to stop using AI. But what will that take?
Researchers are investigating the links between GenAI use and cognitive decline and journalists are sounding the alarm about the potential loss of critical thinking skills. These are obvious consequences; the less you allow yourself to struggle with understanding a challenging text, the less your brain learns to work. Turning to GenAI is like skipping leg day at the gym — it might feel good in the moment, but it makes you weaker and unprepared for future challenges. There is value in going beyond your intellectual comfort zone. In fact, it is part of the very ethos of liberal arts colleges. Occidental’s mission statement says that the school hopes to instill a “lifelong love of learning” and foster “intellectual rigor.” GenAI use is so fundamentally incompatible with these aims that I wonder how anyone at Occidental could consider using it at all.
Besides the cognitive crutch, the massive, environment-polluting data centers required to sustain GenAI models exponentially increases electricity costs and raises demands for fossil fuels. The cost of GenAI is not only our critical thinking skills and education, but also the disruption to our climate and the health of low-income communities where GenAI companies build their data centers. This should make you pause next time you think of having ChatGPT generate your paper. If not for our brains, maybe we’ll stop using GenAI for our bodies and planet — or at least for our wallets.
I know how students try to justify their GenAI use. Many turn to it out of desperation or fear of failure. I’ve been there. I know how appealing GenAI can look in those moments. Yet Occidental’s campus is full of living, breathing people who are eager to help. Peer tutors, professors, classmates and countless other resources have aided me in my education with care and dedication that a GenAI model is incapable of showing. That’s a benefit of the liberal arts experience: being surrounded by community. Use it or lose it, though: if students waste these resources in favor of AI, the college might not be able to rationalize funding them.
Many of my peers, for their part, are fighting back. Even among folks I know who use GenAI, plenty are expressing a desire to quit. My shifts as an advisor at the Writing Center have been busier than ever, which tells me that students are still trying to improve their writing abilities. Many of my class discussions remain vibrant and inspiring, full of people willing to think for themselves even when that means taking chances or being proven wrong. I fear, though, that we are a dying breed.
I’m in college to receive an education. I’m here to think and work, even when it’s difficult or unpleasant. I know that nothing good comes easily, and I caution my peers: as much as GenAI has begun interfering with my college experience, those who use it are the real victims. Unless they start to put in the work themselves, they have forfeited the many opportunities to learn and hone their skills that a liberal arts education provides. The most beautiful thing about humanity is our ability to think, to create ideas out of thin air and turn them into art and arguments for others to grapple with. I love Occidental because it gives me the ability to do just that. GenAI tempts us to give up that ability — but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I hope you won’t, either.
Contact Jay Ward at jward3@oxy.edu
