A CNN article says some students at Yale now can't even talk in class without using ChatGPT to coach them

[highplainsdem]

This article

AI is changing the way students talk in class and how teachers test them
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/04/health/ai-impact-college-student-thinking-wellness

was written by a student who's a junior at Yale and interviewed other students.

From one senior she talked to:

Amanda said she was taken aback. Until that day, she didn’t realize that her peers were using chatbots in class and sharing what it spits out in the classroom. Now she notices the impact that tendency is having on class discussions.

“Everyone now kind of sounds the same,” she said. “I feel like during my freshman year in college, I would sit in seminars where everyone had something different to contribute. Although people would piggyback off each other, they approached from different angles and offered different commentary.”

From another senior:

Jessica, a senior at Yale, told CNN that she uses AI every day for her classes. In an economics seminar in which the professor cold-calls students, “at the beginning of class, you could see every single person putting every single PDF” into a chatbot.

She also uses AI when she has trouble turning her thoughts into words. “I want to comment, and I have this concept, but I don’t know how to formulate the sentence myself,” she said. So she asked a chatbot “to make it sound more cohesive.”

She also admitted she's lazier now, using a chatbot. Her work ethic has dimished since high school.

Another Yale student, a junior, says students are using AI to give them scripts of what to say in class because they feel insecure.

The article also quotes a humanities professor who's a fellow with the rightwing American Enterprise Institute who likes the way students using AI has "raised the floor of class discussion to a generally better level" but worries about how it precludes "original thoughts." He's a nitwit, if he's giving his students approving responses when they echo ChatGPT but still wants original thoughts.

Another professor who's quoted said he's heard of people using AI to decide which candidate to vote for, which he finds scary.

These students have had ChatGPT and similar chatbots available for only three years and four months.

The effect on them has not been good.

[SheltieLover]

1. Jfc.

[PatrickforB]

7. No doubt. This stuff is scary. Talk about dumbing people down! n/t

[SheltieLover]

9. For sure! And many people go for it!

[highplainsdem]

36. Some of the richest companies on Earth are spending all they can to hype AI and pressure people

to use it.

[tinrobot]

2. Yale is like an Olympic training camp for the mind

Yet, these people call an Uber instead of running the mile themselves.

We're going to lose a generation of deep thinkers to this mind-sucking technology.

[highplainsdem]

38. We're also losing potential artists who will not follow their dreams and develop their talents because

they're being told AI will take over the arts to such an extent no humans will have any chance of competing. One of my nieces has a teenaged son whose father, who works for Oracle, actually discouraged him from thinking of becoming a videographer because of AI. I've read of art majors dropping that major, of teenagers telling painters that they love their work but they'll never try learning to paint themselves because of AI.

Those college students having AI tell them what to say in class have not only missed out on learning critical thinking skills, but they've probably been intimidated by AI spitting out fairly persuasive prose in seconds, so they feel they can't compete with that.

[valleyrogue]

44. LOL!!!!

There are plenty of dipshits who are Yale graduates.

Examples: Pat Robertson, J.D. Vance, Eric Metaxas, George W. Bush, for starters.

An Ivy League education doesn't mean intellectual superiority, okay?

These schools pick and choose who they want by limiting enrollment. That is what "selective" means. It isn't because they are academically "superior."

This includes legacy admissions, too.

[highplainsdem]

5. And those Yale students at least got through high school, or most of the way through it, before AI use

dumbed them down. In a few years we'll have college seniors dumbed down by AI since middle school.

[EYESORE 9001]

40. I think the dumbing-down occurs fairly quickly

I use an example from much younger days. I went to high school before portable calculators hit the scene. In a matter of months, people seemed unable to perform simple arithmetic without the calculator.

[highplainsdem]

41. AI is dumbing down adults quickly, too. There've been studies of doctors and software engineers and

others - AI reliance deskills those with experience and keeps those just starting their careers from gaining the expertise they need. They all become more dependent on AI...which can make plenty of mistakes.

[Straw Man]

20. Yup.

I can only imagine what's going on at junior colleges.

I know because I'm there. (Actually, I retired in 2022, but I still teach a few classes per semester online.) The administration think they've "solved" the problem by giving us AI-detection software. There are two main problems with this: first it doesn't work, providing copious false positives and failing to detect AI-generated content that has been "scrubbed"; second, it comes with a disclaimer that its results are not "proof of academic dishonesty." In other words, it's absolutely worthless: another piece of tech junk sold to the rubes by the bros.

If I were teaching in the classroom, I'd do real-time essays with pen and paper. Some of my former colleagues are doing this. For those of us in the online arena, it's a losing battle, one that most are unwilling to fight for adjunct pay. The bottom line is that critical thinking skills are going down the toilet. Combine that loss with the tsunami of bogus content that's flooding the the Internet and we're on the verge of a mass dumbing-down of epic proportions. Honestly, I fear for our future unless this is somehow brought under control.

[misanthrope]

22. So it is working to perfection then

All the easier to harvest our precious bodily fluids.

[highplainsdem]

42. That has to be incredibly frustrating for you. Do the students listen if you tell them they're just

hurting themselves if they use AI? Would telling them about the news stories and studies on AI dumbing people down (I've posted some of those here on DU) get through to them?

[NickB79]

56. Bold of you to assume their handwriting would be legible

My daughter is 16, and I find her handwriting mid at best, but apparently it's very good compared to her peers. I've pulled out old papers I wrote at her age, and the difference is night and day. Several of my coworkers who are still in their 20's also have atrocious handwriting, to the point our supervisor had to create an online form we fill out because no one could read their handwritten notes.

[oldsoldierfadingfast]

4. The old saying...

'If you don't use it, you loose it' applies to the brain too.
I know. as I have lost so much - but at least, I waited until I was old and with life's major responsibilities behind me.

What will happen when these supposedly educated people have to start 'thinking on their feet" with no time to check their smart phones?

[FHRRK1]

10. Wat ar u talkin about!

Teknologie makes everything beter. Look at me, i gradated college well before computers. Spel chek did nothing to impack my speling skils.

[highplainsdem]

43. Those supposedly educated people will be addicted consumers of AI, victims of learned helplessness,

and sitting ducks for whatever advertising and propaganda the AI companies want to aim at them.

AI bros pandering to Trump at the moment.

AI is a perfect technology for authoritarians.

[chowder66]

6. Shame on educators allowing this.

[highplainsdem]

8. Most of the teachers I've talked to tried to stop it. School admins were pressured by AI companies, or

dazzled by this very flawed tech.

[NJCher]

11. they'd never get away with this

if I was the professor for the class. I have my ways of eliciting creativity. It's not easy, though. It's very, very hard and time intensive.

In case anyone's interested, here is what I do:

First they read one complex essay.

Then they read another.

Then they have to imagine how Essayist 1 would respond to Essayist 2's question.

I then help them use this input to form a thesis statement.

Can you see how there is no way they could use AI with this technique?

[Intractable]

14. Only because you are there watching them read the essays and create the response.

Without you, they can just feed both essays to the ChatBot and create a prompt like "compare the two files."

The thesis would come from the output.

Prompt the ChatBot with something like "what is the most important idea in the comparison."

[NJCher]

23. No way

I can see you don’t understand the process.

[Intractable]

28. I'm sorry that you don't understand what people can do with AI today, let alone tomorrow.

You will not win this. We will all lose.

[NJCher]

46. professors are given classes on this

We do understand. What I think is you don't understand the process of creativity, nor do you understand college-level English.

[Intractable]

48. The only way you can prevent the students from using AI is when you are standing over them.

I have a master's degree in technology studies. I am a retired technical writer.

Your insults merely show your own frustration in this matter.

[NJCher]

51. observation, not an insult

from someone who works in the field. No need to get defensive.

[Intractable]

54. I look forward to your response to WhiskeyGrinder.

I predict you will fail to describe a pedagogical method of education that thwarts students from using AI and does not involve watching them when learning or being tested.

I was a college professor of technology studies before I was a technical writer. I have graded hundreds of papers.

Your lack of self-awareness in the phrasings of your posts toward me is remarkable.

My defensiveness is your own self-projection.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

24. I'm an AI hater and I don't see how there's no way they couldn't use AI unless they're doing all this in front of you.

So could you describe the process more clearly if that’s not what’s happening?

[NJCher]

47. will do

I'm in meetings for a while but after I'm out, I'll be happy to do so.

[NJCher]

58. developing creativity in student essays

I posted my response but it's not showing up.
I'll summarize what I said: To prevent the use of AI, the professor has to monitor the writing of the paper. More important, however, is the development of a creative thesis statement which the student will enjoy writing.

To do the latter, our department pioneered this process over 2 decades ago. It involves reading two complex essays and then projecting how each writer would think about a contemporary issue. The student has to stay close to the text, quoting one of the essayists in each paragraph.*

Prior to writing this part, however, the student has to do a close reading. Not only that, but there are numerous in-class discussions which lets the professor know who is getting it and who isn't.

The core of the essay is done first: three 2-page papers developing and supporting the thesis statement are done first. Points 1, 2, and 3.

The 2-page papers (the core of the paper) are where the student's creative point evolves. AI use is not possible because this stage is very similar to showing your work when doing a math problem. Each 2-page paper has to show how the student evolves the development and support. In writing, we have a saying: you wrote yourself into a good thesis statement. Where the student ends up is often a good starting point for the second draft.

If the 2-page papers do not show this, I'll read them but they get an NG, not a grade. To get credit for the paper, the student has to meet the requirements of the 2-page paper like I mentioned above with the quotes.

I have another process for the intro and conclusion, but in the interest of brevity, I'll cut this short. It's already too long!

*Later they can remove some of the quotes in the editing process.

[Intractable]

59. The crux is "To prevent the use of AI, the professor has to monitor the writing of the paper."

The rest is irrelevant.

It is the one-and-only thing I argued, and you argued with me (including sending insults), and now you admit to it.

[NJCher]

60. Not the case at all

I didn’t respond to your post because it’s not worth my time.

[Intractable]

62. Sheer nonsense. Blatent dishonesty. Zero academic integrity.

You wrote this, or rather copied it from your so-called training documents ...


I posted my response but it's not showing up.
I'll summarize what I said: To prevent the use of AI, the professor has to monitor the writing of the paper. More important,

And everything else you posted here is just nonsense and insults. Ad hominem attacks are the purview of those with no valid argument.

[BurnDoubt]

12. I'm reminded of a Star Trek episode...

"You're not of the Body....."

This is just the interegnum before Humans are relegated to the Klepto Mines.
Won't be long....

[calimary]

13. THIS is getting scary.

[highplainsdem]

45. I agree. I didn't expect AI use in school to result this quickly in students thinking they need AI to tell

them what to say in class.

[BeneteauBum]

15. That's pitiful

Raising a generation who can’t think for themselves….potential MAGA acolytes.

Peace ☮️

[magicarpet]

52. Exactly,... Artificial Intelligence is a Mega-MAGA Zombie factory in disguise.

Maybe Barron William Trump has a very bright future in politics while he resides in the White House in the decades to come.

Where is my barf bag ?

[Lemon Lyman]

16. Ugh

This is so stupid. I know work can suck. But if you don't do the work, you don't learn anything. If some machine or app is writing your papers and answering your questions, you're not going to learn or improve.

Pisses me off to see some commercials now using improper grammar ("The Honda CRV Hybrid will help you make less trips to the pump" -- No, it's FEWER). It's like even smart people are dumbing things down b/c dumb people expect to hear it a certain way.

anyways (anyway)
could of/should of (could have/should have)
they're bias (biased)
that's a bunch of dribble (drivel)
she's the worse (worst)

I think a lot of people just do things phonetically. And if you correct someone's grammar, even politely, you're an a*shole. We're regressing. I think in 20 years we'll be communicating by clicks and grunts like cave people.

Idiocracy should win an honorary Oscar every year. It came out in 2005, and it was 99% right about the future.

[LisaM]

18. Reknown or renown instead of renowned.

I have whole lists of these too - especially when a pronoun reflects back to the wrong noun. I remember someone in one of my college classes had a sentence in a paper that started, "like a kindly old uncle in the attic, we see Buckminster Fuller as..."

We were supposed to give feedback so I did nicely point out that she had referred to "we" (the readers, I guess) as a kindly old uncle. I am not sure she actually understood the criticism. Another person in the same class wrote that "the explosion in technology has been geometric". I was sure she meant "exponential" but she absolutely refused to change it, even though she couldn't explain what she meant by "geometric".

[TheRickles]

27. I showed this to my friend, and him and I both agree with you.

[AllyCat]

17. The end of struggle and critical thinking.

Perfect. Just what we needed. /s

[flvegan]

19. Yale grads that'll wonder why nobody will hire them. n/t

[andym]

21. Prof. Kingsfield from the "Paper Chase" would destroy these students should they later decide to attend Harvard Law

because he would force them to think beyond the factual case histories that the AI could provide. The Socratic method is a potential solution to Yale's students' mushy thinking as well. Ironically, AI's answers could even be a starting point to delve deeper into the law into complex ethical issues that at the moment is possibly beyond AI's capabilities.

[no_hypocrisy]

25. My senior thesis in 1979:

I started the research at least nine months before its dissertation.

I stopped typing the final copy to hand in to the professors 24 hours before the dissertation.

My bibliography at seven pages.

Footnotes: OMG, a plethora on each page, some annotated.

I earned the right to graduate from my college because of all the work I did on that thesis.

AI minimalizes the college and research experience. Mocks it.

[yardwork]

37. I don't think anybody under the age of 60 could do that now.

Thinking back on how we hand typed the footnotes on the bottom of each page, having to gauge how much space to leave...

[Vinca]

26. The dumbing down of America continues.

[OC375]

29. Teenage Wasteland

Employers aren’t going to want employees who need a security blanket to speak.

[BadgerKid]

30. How long until the post-AI Renaissance then?

There definitely has been a trend toward lazier thinking in which, in my view, religion, the social milieu, and technology have played a role.

[PeaceWave]

61. The Dark Ages more like it.

[Johnny2X2X]

31. Clickbait article

Ooh let's hit the trifecta here. Bash young people, check. Bash elite Ivy league schools, check. Bash AI, check.

[highplainsdem]

33. Not clickbait at all. It was written by a young person, a Yale student. And there's been more and more

evidence that AI dumbs down and deskills even adults, with young people not gaining the skills in the first place.

What was new in this article was students admitting they and their classmates often need AI to feel confident even talking in class.

[jcboon]

34. Exactly

I think there's a little propaganda here.

[highplainsdem]

39. Microsoft's own study.showed that AI dumbs users down:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-critical-thinking-self-reported-reductions-in-cognitive-effort-and-confidence-effects-from-a-survey-of-knowledge-workers/

There have been any number of news stories and studies on AI having negative effects on both adults and children:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221115812

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221132789

[ruet]

32. Sounds like bullshit to me.

It has "kids using litterbox's" vibes for sure.

[highplainsdem]

35. It's nothing at all like the kids-using-litterboxes RW propaganda stories. It fits in with news stories and

social media posts I've seen for years about adults feeling they can't manage their own work, after becoming dependent on AI, if their favorite AI model isn't available. Those stories and social media posts started appearing already in early 2023, if ChatGPT was down. More recently there have been similar stories about Claude.

[PeaceWave]

50. I had to Google your litterboxes reference. Now I'm like WTF?!

[highplainsdem]

53. Isn't that RW conspiracy theory bizarre? I don't understand why ruet would compare this news story

about Yale students and AI to that conspiracy theory.

[Happy Hoosier]

49. My wife has changed her tactics.

She used to assign mutiple smaller papers over the course of a semester. Now she is leaning towards a semster long bigger project with multiple drafts and paper conferences. It one thing to get Chat GPT to puke out a 4 page essay on Wuthering Heights. It's another to get it to generate all the artifacts of a research paper and it's revisions and to be able to talk about that in live paper conferences.

She laments it a bit because it means less coverage. But it's MUCH easier to ID the AI cheaters. She just nailed one last week.

[NickB79]

57. What did she do to the cheater?