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TIL that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) just published a report on what AI is doing to education (t.co)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Jonawan@lemmy.zip to c/til@lemmy.world

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A committee of professors and students spent 5 months studying how AI changed learning on campus, and the findings read like a warning to every university on the planet.

⭕ Study groups are disappearing.

⭕ Office hours are emptying out.

⭕ Problem sets and take-home exams no longer prove anything, because AI can produce credible solutions to almost any written assignment in the undergraduate curriculum.

⭕ Students who lean on chatbots lose mastery and confidence, and some slip into what the report calls cognitive surrender, reaching for AI at the first hint of struggle.

The committee warns MIT professors against replacing undergraduate research assistants with AI agents just because they're cheaper, because a university exists to grow people, not output.

https://aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/

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[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

even a random idiot could have called that last point.

A the ground work for this was laid when search engines were useful. People would stop thinking, they'd just break out the phone and search for the solution to any problem.. and they never retained the information, because the because the brain isnt designed to retain information in situations where you can pull the magic slab out of your pocket to do 3 seconds of problem solving for you.

and its only gotten worse with AI. There are people who literally cant even function without an AI telling them what to do anymore, Its taken over their entire lives and doing almost everything for them except telling them when and how to go to the bathroom.. and I wager it wont be long before we start having people pissing and shitting themselves because their AI didnt tell them they should go to the bathroom.

[-] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

They don't want people to think of ways to rise against them.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

yep.

the terrifying consequences of AI use are the final stages of decades of attacks on education.. creating the perfect being. A complete, non-functional idiot that believes everything its told without any thought or consideration, and completely non-functional without their masters grace (the AI)

[-] BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

we are quite literally going down the idiocracy pipeline. i sure hope some secret military operation to send 2 completely average people into the future 500 years is taking place

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

secret military operation

operation electrolytes.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

Notice that these are also all ways to eliminate the few remaining places where people actually first meet in person, realize they have things in common, form groups/relationships, organize towards common goals...

It's like they just want two people, sitting in separate rooms, depressed and constantly delivered targeted messages they control about how the other person, in the other room, hates and judges them.

[-] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 13 hours ago

I don’t think the news should be in TIL. TIL should be for info the details of which has been around for quite a while.

[-] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 16 points 22 hours ago

If it's a month old, it's probably news vs TIL.

[-] pdxfed@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

This is long, but worth reading. It probably was warranted at the onset of the internet to be honest; education has changed so little despite memorization to pass a test in many subjects being worth little in the real world now. It would be supremely ironic if the suddeness of the onset of AI and the fact that institutions/educators/learners are all existentially terrified that it can actually led to critical mass that allows for updating the educational model in the US. It won't change the rapacious nature of current actors but hopefully can allow society to better manage and process what is being forced on us by PE.

[-] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 6 points 16 hours ago

I had one class in undergrad where the teacher was like "we're gonna cover far more than you could possibly learn in a semester. I don't expect you to memorize it all, but you should be familiar enough with it that you could look it up if needed." But it was a senior-level class that basically was taught with the expectation that you were gonna go into grad school and the tests questions overwhelmingly were about research methods/analyzing results, not the specific details covered in class. It works really well for that class imo, but only because it was niche enough that the next step if you wanted to learn more was either go into research within that field or read primary research papers, so it focused on teaching what you needed for those.

For most other classes, the basic facts are necessary to know to be able to do more advanced thinking. Unless you just want people who just have to blindly access whatever computers tell them is correct because they've lost any sense of what a reasonable answer or process is.

[-] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Yeah. I think a lot of folks make attribution errors. They don't remember how much introductory work is memorizing stuff, because they haven't done introductory work in 10-30 years, so they are like 40+ and don't understand how all their skills and experience make them not have to memorize anything... because they already know tons of stuff.

It's like... how do you learn a foreign language? You memorize the words, the phrases, and learn the grammar to take the words you learned and put them in the correct sequence... but folks today are like 'nah I'd rather just use my phone to translate it all and then claim I am speak a foreign language'.

Our issue is our education system isn't teaching people memorization anymore and hasn't done that for 20-30 years. That technique was already 'out' when i was a middle schooler, and frankly I had to go back and re-learn things later in life because well, I never memorized it as a kid because my school refused to teach us to do that. Like English Language Grammar. Today I doubt kids even know what grammar let alone can identify the basic parts of speech and their functions in a sentence.

Education today is so far removed from the basics. It's funny... in countries where they do focus on rote learning... their outcomes are better. Because they actually understand knowledge in hierarchical and you can't learn advanced things without strong foundations of the basic skills that require memorization via repetition...

[-] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

Yes. Memorizing things is part of building your tool set. You can't be flipping to look up basic info, or not even aware of it, as you progress. Having a preexisting knowledge of specific information also is necessary for making quick evaluations of situations and problems.

[-] pdxfed@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Yep, obviously basic knowledge familiarity is helpful, but it's a push and pull with critical thinking, which I mentioned above has barely been taught in the US while memorizing facts has. Much more balance of the latter is needed in a world full of information.

[-] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 1 points 14 hours ago

Yeah. Its frustrating seeing how many people have no idea on how to even attempt math word problems if they don't just have an algorithm memorized for a specific wording of a question. Or can't tell when a problem gives additional information that isn't necessary and complain about such. Real-world problem solving doesn't just give you number you need and only those numbers.

[-] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

if you don't know the basic facts and history of your profession, what do you know at all?

memorization is a basic skill. you can't learn anything without memorization. the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

memorization is how you build pattern recognition.

but please go off on how memorization is 'useless' and how schools need to teach 'critical thinking!' as if critical thinking can exist without... memorizing the basic fact of anything.

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[-] leanleft@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 day ago

TIL is supposed to be like an interesting or suprising fact. or an easy overlooked lifehack.
this is like randomly picking a research paper and having chatgpt summarize it, then post it as TIL .
additionally, do we even know that this is a fact? its really just the outcome of their own case study. it probably says something about the intersection of education and technology at the current moment. but that could all change in less than a year.

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[-] gibmiser@lemmy.world 113 points 1 day ago

This will not change. This will continue because every one of those things hold short term benefits for individuals, long term be damned.

No study groups? Students will see that as a win.

No office hours? More convenient for students. Professors / admin save time or money.

Homework and tests No longer work means Students and professors wont have to do them, or no longer spend much time on them.

Students lose mastery and confidence means more reliant on AI, and there is no way this is lost on tech bros as a selling point.

The free market WILL NOT solve this problem. These are classic externalities and capitalism DGAF about problems that don't show up on the cost ledger.

[-] myyass@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

This has been going on for a while. Even before llms. When I was younger, I was actually educated as in trying new things and learning about them. Then came the proficiency test focus of leave every child behind. Then came in gutting classes and programs to only focus on tests and sports. Then came the charging money for sports. Then when I worked in education; it got worse. You would have kids that are 14 that can't write two sentences; can't write an email without auto-correct; struggled to read, it looked like someone smacked a keyboard to try and write something. And so on; it's just the next level of going downwards.

It was sad to see that students with so much access to tech became so ... I don't even know.

When I was thirteen I was writing programs, using pretty much any multimedia software, beta testing games (how to get free games for 500), tweaking the lawnmower engine (to mow the lawn faster, that pesky governor lol), and so on.

So you're right, this won't change, maybe when it backfires it might. But this is creating a huge void, not even a brain drain anymore. There's going to be a general malfunction to society. I mean it's sad

[-] BlaestEgnen@feddit.dk 7 points 23 hours ago

It was sad to see that students with so much access to tech became so ... I don't even know.

Tech became too easy to use. In the 00s, you'd need to have an understanding of file paths. You'd need to know where a programmes files were located, to fix whatever broke

Eventually "auto repair" became the standard, then we moved onto handheld consoles (smartphones and tablets). Which relied on app stores, that already confirmed the app wouldn't destroy anything. So all these annoying to deal with issues just... Vanished. But so did skill, because you never needed the skill to solve a problem in the first place

[-] GalacticRobot@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

The skills simply change over time. It's great that you could muck about and maybe fix something back in the day, but does that same skill apply to modern architecture? No. The true skill you learned what your ability to be curious, to constantly learn and improve, and use those skills across a wide variety of problems, not just simple tech issues. Those are the skills we should be teaching the next and future generation, rather than what the classic education paradigm has been, which is memorization and how to show up on time, to make good factory workers, which are existing less and less in the modern world. Does AI help or harm that? It's just another tool that can be used in good or bad ways, just like the calculator.

[-] myyass@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

In a way you're right but a lot of this comes at a cost. As in people are not used to being bored anymore. Not being bored leads to less creative thinking and procrastination. Internet is out, well I guess I'm working on the motorcycle instead of sitting at the computer.

[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 2 points 16 hours ago

but does that same skill apply to modern architecture

Architecture hasn't changed all that much. It's just more hidden

[-] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 points 16 hours ago

AI harms curiosity

[-] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 points 16 hours ago

How do you get the connections to beta test games?

[-] myyass@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Now, you have to know someone to be referenced if you want to get paid. If you want play games for free, you can always apply for closed or open betas; at lot of times stress tests are needed as well as hardware tests. Then again "early access" has become a bit of a plague to that.

You also get the perk of not reporting glitches. I don't know if you've played World of Warcraft, there was a fun reason they implemented a global cooldown for skills. One reason was you could write a macro to swap weapons and do a backstab or ambush with the slowest blunt weapon possible. Oh the joys of 4k to 8k crits. It was quite a bit of a "solo leveling" dungeon experience. I mean if you think about it, getting ~~backstabbed~~ rearended with a big blunt mace probably would be a more serious crit than a tiny dagger.

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[-] iatenine@piefed.social 46 points 1 day ago

I had Claude read the results. Sounds like the changes are all positive and nobody should rethink their investments or effect on society at all

[-] okamiueru@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I just realised why I find AI enthusiasts so repulsive. I was already aware of how rude it is for someone to share the output from an LLM. Someone sharing an opinion they formed based on such an interaction, I realised is as repugnant, if not more.

Or to put it in a different way: "I couldn't form my own opinion on the matter. So I shook a magic 8 cube a bunch of times, and the 'conversation' we had, is something I think is worth while for others to hear".

[-] taiyang@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Appreciate the summary, although I don't even like holding office hours so I don't mind that. The rest are depressing, though.

That said... my own experience doesn't match up on the take-homes being useless. My God the way answers math problems are so bizarrely incorrect that I've given more 0s than I have in my entire fucking life.

At least, upside, my holistic approach with a lot of discussion, projects and oral components to assignments are really shining. Helps that my classes are only 25 max though- I can't imagine how bad 80-300 classes are.

[-] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

How to solve this, then, from these bullet points:

Hire more grad assistants. Get them to administer one-on-one oral defenses —they’ll only need 10 minutes or less — of the undergraduates’ take-home exams. Watch the undergrads fucking crumple and get washed out. Those who are left are the ones who’d use office hours and study groups anyway.

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this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2026

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