the roamerJul 24, 2025

Met my MSc dissertation students this week. All good natured people. But the genAI rot is spreading.

About half of them do their work, and ask me questions about the problems they encounter. I advise on possible next steps. We meet again next week. All good.

But.

The other half, each of them perfectly well meaning, came back to me with questions that had nothing to do with their projects, and proposed solutions that are alien to the framework we are using. After some serious conversations, I found that in each case they had relied on chatGTP answers to their prompts. They had not read the actual papers I had given them.

Some had implemented equations that are patently false, not by error (this would be good for learning), but because chatGPT told them so.

A significant part our students can't read anymore. They need to interact with genAI, and they think this is research.

We are heading for trouble. In higher education, and in society at large.

#noAI #AcademicChatter

Show threadBabys in a thundercloud 🏳‍⚧️ Jul 24, 2025
@the_roamer This isn’t new or a direct consequence of AI: students had trouble reading for the last decade, and French teachers associate this with social media addiction. IQ results are collapsing globally, IMO because the test itself is biased toward reading and writing.
Show threadthe roamer

@oceane

I am not worried about IQ scores, but I agree with your point, there is a long-term trend. But the arrival of chatGPT in 2022 has led to a qualitative jump. Since then, in my context as a university teacher, I observe a dramatic deterioration of students' ability to actively engage with the material and the process: read the articles, take notes in lectures, do the exercise. Not all students, but a significant proportion, and even the best students are affected.

#noAI

Jul 25, 2025 at 4:16amWeb
Show threadBabys in a thundercloud 🏳‍⚧️ Jul 25, 2025

@the_roamer I’m not worried about the IQ decline either: it isn’t meant as an intelligence test but as an intellectual potential test. Regardless of their IQ, a Twitter addict is an idiot.

On the introduction of AI into university curriculums, I don’t know what to say — I’ve only used AI twice and I regret it. Non-corporate users comfort the market, bring more investors, and become complicit of warlords in Congo. I’ve become complicit of murders there, and I can’t express my guilt and regrets in any meaningful way.

Free software activists’ lack of narrative about this is deeply disturbing.