Survey: Faculty Say AI Is Impactful--but Not In a Good Way

[Coventina]

Faculty overwhelmingly agree that generative artificial intelligence will have an impact on teaching and learning in higher education, but whether that impact is positive or negative is still up for debate.

Nine in 10 faculty members say that generative AI will diminish students’ critical thinking skills, and 95 percent say its impact will increase students’ overreliance on AI tools over time, according to a report out today from the American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University.

In November, the groups surveyed 1,057 faculty members at U.S. institutions about their thoughts on generative AI’s impact. Eighty-three percent of faculty said the technology will decrease students’ attention spans, and 79 percent said they think the typical teaching model in their department will be affected by AI.

Most professors—86 percent—said that the impact of AI on teachers will be “significant and transformative or at least noticeable,” the report states. Only 4 percent said that AI’s effect on teaching will “not amount to much.” About half of faculty respondents said AI will have a negative effect on students’ careers over the next five years, while 20 percent said it will have a positive effect and another 20 percent said it will be equally negative and positive.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/teaching/2026/01/21/survey-faculty-say-ai-impactful-not-good-way

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AI will be the worst thing to happen to humanity since....maybe ever.
We will become slaves to technology.
Incapable of thinking for ourselves.
I already see it in my students. They don't want to "learn" anything, because they can just ask ChatGPT to tell them whatever they want to know.

[Wiz Imp]

1. Nine in 10 faculty members say that generative AI will diminish students' critical thinking skills,

and 95 percent say its impact will increase students’ overreliance on AI tools over time. Eighty-three percent of faculty said the technology will decrease students’ attention spans.

That seems to clearly contradict their first sentence: Faculty overwhelmingly agree that generative artificial intelligence will have an impact on teaching and learning in higher education, but whether that impact is positive or negative is still up for debate.

Survey results seem to indicate there is overwhelming agreement that AI will have significant negative impacts. There doesn't seem to be much debate about that.

[highplainsdem]

2. I've met some teachers who push for AI to be used, but most of the ones I've met who are doing so

are making money from it, either directly through an AI company's program, or through a new AI-oriented education specialty their school has created, or through writing books about AI and teaching. They're shilling for AI companies, to some extent.

The teachers I've met who are not involved in promoting AI and trying to get it used more are overwhelmingly opposed to AI and very aware of the harm it's doing.

[highplainsdem]

3. ...

I already see it in my students. They don't want to "learn" anything, because they can just ask ChatGPT to tell them whatever they want to know.

I'm so sorry, Coventina. It was obvious as soon as ChatGPT was released that it was going to be disastrous for education. There's no way Sam Altman of OpenAI wasn't aware of that, too, but he was fine with all those kids cheating because his bragging about how fast his free cheating tool was adopted got him more attention and drew in more investors.

As of last year, students were still the largest single group of ChatGPT users, and most probably use the free version. OpenAI keeps losing billions, so in the very near future those kids will start getting lots of ads with their free cheating tool.

Damn the AI bros...

[highplainsdem]

4. I'm glad this study came out, because it's useful for AI opponents, and there are more and more of

them all the time. I've seen AI proponents online doing a lot of whining that those critical of AI haven't been converted to loving AI, or at least shut up. The widespread dislike of AI isn't just in education: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220955444

The study that article is about is here:
https://imaginingthedigitalfuture.org/collaborations/the-ai-challenge-how-college-faculty-assess-the-present-and-future-of-higher-education-in-the-age-of-ai/

78% said cheating on their campus has increased since GenAI tools have become widely available, including 57% who said it has increased a lot. And 73% said they have personally dealt with academic integrity issues involving their students’ use of GenAI.

48% said their students’ research has gotten worse because of GenAI, compared with 20% who said they believe it has gotten better.

74% of these faculty said the use of GenAI tools will affect the integrity and value of academic degrees for the worse, including 36% who said the value of degrees will worsen a lot. Just 8% said GenAI’s impact will affect the value of degrees for the better.

-snip-

“These faculty are divided about the use of generative AI itself,” said Lee Rainie, director of Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center and a co-author of the report. “Some are innovating and eager to do more; a notable share are strongly resistant; and many are grappling with how to proceed. At the same time, there is broad agreement that without clear values, shared norms and serious investment in AI literacy, we risk trading compelling teaching, deep learning, human judgment and students’ intellectual independence for convenience and a perilous, automated future.”