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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[–] -3 points 2 days ago (12 children)

That's not how the real world has worked in a long time. Memorization of facts is essentially useless. Knowing how to find facts quickly how to analyze facts and how to apply them has far more function in modern society. That's the difference between memorizing a multiplication table and using a calculator. Why would you memorize a multiplication table when you need to know the basis of multiplication and then utilize a tool to do that work for you much quicker? Its like saying you need to learn to write cursive before typing on a computer.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    what is the 'real world' then?

    am I in a fake world, because memorizing shit is what I do all day. I have to do that because it's my job to know things and teach those things ti other people... I guess my 150K IT security job is 'fake' though, right?

    how can you find a fact if you don't eve know what a fact is or isn't? what if i google a multiplication table and it tells me 2 x 2 = 16? am i suppose to just take that as the 'answer' even though I have memorized it's 4?

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  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Funny, so never would your brain be wrong? You never ever have to reference a book or wiki or anything for your knowledge? You must be a special kind of person then, and one who quickly wouldn't have new information.

    Since you know what 2 x 2 is because you know how to multiply, it's pretty easy to go 'hmm, that doesn't seem correct, let me try something else here'.

    But you do not have domain level knowledge of all subjects, and can't memorize everything. Perhaps you know there are resources for that, and it's more important to know how to access and synthesize information rather than stuff it into a squishy brain that more often than not get's 'memories' incorrect.

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  • [–] 1 point 21 hours ago*

    if you don't know anything, how do you know the information in the resource is correct or if it's false?

    you're point out the very problem with AI dependency, it's that people are getting flase information, and think it's true because they have none of their own knowledge with which to compare and contrast it to verify it's veracity.

    I don't understand this stupid ass attitude that 'well if you can't memorize everything ever what is the point of memorizing anything ever'. Like.. seriously? You realize knowing how to drive... is an act of memory right? You know where the controls are, you know what they do. Can AI teach you to drive, can a book? No, only direct experience through practice teaching you it.

    That's what memory is, it's experience. If you don't experience things, you don't know them.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    "I'm ok with my surgeon not having memorized anatomy. He can look it up."

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  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Funny, they literally already are doing that. Projections in surgery to help surgeons find target tissues and help them you know, remove the tissues they are supposed to.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (1 child)

    They are used to target locations of things like brain tumors but you are still expected to know the anatomical layout of where you are going and to confirm it makes sense. Go before a courtroom for a malpractice suit and tell them you don't know anatomy and relied blindly on some AI tool.

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  • [–] 1 point 23 hours ago

    AI tools are now common practice in the hospital and are approved by the FDA. Might want to keep up with how rapid the space is changing. COmpnaies are now literally using Claude to accelerate drug development.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Lol that it's faster to use a calculator than recall a memorized result.

    I am very so so at math and can do an unmemorized calculation faster than pulling out and typing it into a calculator.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    You can? That's impressive. Because you multiplication tables do nothing for you when you start getting into multi digit calculations. The important part is learning how to conduct multiplication, then after that you often will let a tool do it for you.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    So now you moved the goal posts.

    How about this example. It isn't a problem if a family doctor has to do research an odd case. It is actually preferable that they do.

    But I would hope that someone working in the ER isn't googling procedures when loved ones are bleeding out and minutes away from death.

    And quarterbacks need to know plays. Lots of information is best left memorized and in the head. And computers and tools like the internet can't be taken for granted that they will always be there.

    Power failures, computer ransomware, etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    the analogy at the end doesn't really make sense. the goal of wriiting cursive was to speed up the ability to record information via text. typing and the ubiquity of computers has basically made cursive vestigial. memorization of facts is important to fully grasp complex problems. you don't need to sit down and memorize by staring at a sheet of paper, but eventually if you look something up enough times, you should be able to memorize it, so that you can mentally go "oh it's that" and move on, which allows you to juggle multiple of these types of things at a time.

    how are you going to quickly analyze whether a fact is true without enough knowledge to verify core concepts? a better example in your rationale would be "its like saying you need to learn chemistry and metallurgy before you can become a mechanic", which is obviously absurd. but would you trust a mechanic to fix your car after a crash, or properly diagnose if it was totaled, if he had to ask you where the manual is for your car first?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    the analogy at the end doesn’t really make sense. the goal of wriiting cursive was to speed up the ability to record information via text. typing and the ubiquity of computers has basically made cursive vestigial

    Damn, almost the perfect analogy. Technology and tools make humans able to do things faster, more effectively and often more accurately.

    but would you trust a mechanic to fix your car after a crash, or properly diagnose if it was totaled, if he had to ask you where the manual is for your car first?

    You recognize that most mechanics would literally have Hayes manuals to do exactly that right?

    I swear, it's like folks don't think before they type. Everyone uses reference information to pull from. Law books, medical books, scientific papers. No way do you memorize all or even the majority of it. You use these materials because you know how to look up information quickly, and the information is accurate, so you synthesize ideas and thoughts around it.

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