{"id":46,"date":"2026-01-26T18:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/?p=46"},"modified":"2026-01-26T18:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:12:29","slug":"a-i-is-making-modern-students-more-stupid-they-cant-think-on-their-own-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/a-i-is-making-modern-students-more-stupid-they-cant-think-on-their-own-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0A.I. Is Making Modern Students More Stupid! They Can’t Think On Their Own In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A\u00a0new survey<\/a>\u00a0from the American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University\u2019s Imagining the Digital Future Center found that an overwhelming majority of college faculty are concerned that A.I. is harming students ability to think on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey, which polled 1,057 faculty members, found that 95% believe that AI will make students overly relay on A.I. and 75% said AI will have a major impact<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninety percent of faculty said AI would decrease students\u2019 critical thinking abilities, and 83% said students\u2019 use of it would decrease their attention spans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty are also concerned about ethical issues tied to student use of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventy-eight percent of faculty said that cheating on\u00a0their campus\u00a0has increased since AI\u2019s ready availability, with 57% saying it has increased significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventy-three percent of faculty said they personally have had to handle academic integrity issues due to their students using AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the survey, students\u2019 research capabilities are also suffering. Forty-eight percent of faculty say their students\u2019 research has deteriorated due to AI, while 20% said it has improved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty were similarly skeptical about\u00a0AI\u2019s impact on academic credentials<\/a>, with 74% saying the use of AI tools will negatively affect the integrity and value of academic degrees, including 36% who believe the value of degrees are not what they use to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just 8% of faculty said they believe AI will increase the value of degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, many faculty members said they are concerned that students are not prepared to enter a workforce<\/a> increasingly shaped by AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty-three percent of faculty said their schools\u2019 graduates last spring were not well-prepared or not prepared at all to use AI in the workplace, while only 37% believed the graduating students were very or semi-prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The non-scientific survey was conducted late last year, using a list of college and university faculty members developed by AAC&U and Elon University, across a variety of titles and disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese faculty are divided about the use of generative AI itself,\u201d Lee Rainie, director of Elon University\u2019s Imagining the Digital Future Center and a co-author of the report, said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome are innovating and eager to do more; a notable share are strongly resistant; and many are grappling with how to proceed,\u201d Rainie added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt 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\u2019 intellectual independence for convenience and a perilous, automated future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie Watson, co-author of the report and vice president for digital innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said the survey points to a need for leadership in the uncharted territories of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen more than nine in 10 faculty warn that generative AI may weaken critical thinking and increase student overreliance, it is clear that higher education is at an inflection point,\u201d Watson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the survey\u2019s findings \u201cdo not call for abandoning AI, but for intentional leadership \u2014 rethinking teaching models, assessment practices, and academic integrity so that human judgment, inquiry, and learning remain central. The challenge before higher education is to act with urgency and purpose so that AI strengthens, rather than undermines, the value of a college degree.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0new survey\u00a0from the American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University\u2019s Imagining the Digital Future Center found that an overwhelming majority of college faculty are concerned that A.I. is harming students ability to think on their own. The survey, which polled 1,057 faculty members, found that 95% believe that AI will make students overly relay on A.I. and 75%…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,56,16,6,19],"tags":[58,59,57],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-education","category-american-students","category-big-braingtp","category-breaking-ai-news","category-llm-learning","tag-american-education","tag-american-students","tag-stupid-americans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigbraingtp.com\/aieducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}