Wellesley, United States. A Babson College professor describes how her approach to teaching writing and research has shifted as generative AI tools become more common in higher education. She says her focus remains on learning rather than being either for or against AI.
Early classroom experiments with ChatGPT
Kristi Girdharry, an associate teaching professor of arts and humanities at Babson College, writes that she was among the first writing instructors to publish in an academic journal about generative AI and critical thinking and is now part of an interdisciplinary Babson team examining AI’s impact on education, industry and society.
She recalls an exercise from spring 2023, shortly after ChatGPT became publicly available, in which students in a senior-level social media class used the tool to research their favorite musical artist and then fact-check the results. She writes that the responses often sounded polished and confident but included errors such as scrambled album dates and invented tours. She says the inaccuracies were especially noticeable for less popular artists and used the discussion to prompt students to consider whose voices might be excluded in other knowledge areas.
Policy changes and concerns about student work
By fall 2023, Girdharry writes that she began to feel the loss of a “pre-AI-everywhere world” and adjusted her approach in a sophomore-level research writing class. She required a proposal section titled “Be Better Than a Robot,” asking students to consider what role their own thinking would play if ChatGPT could write the paper.
She says the class emphasized primary research, in-class reading and annotation, and extended deadlines to match the rigor of the work. AI use was discouraged but not banned; students were required to provide careful and explicit descriptions of how they used it, and she offered examples such as brainstorming academic titles. She writes that a small number of final projects appeared to be AI-generated and that these instances led her to question whether she should have taken a stricter stance.
Broader debate and student habits
Girdharry writes that discussions about college students’ use of AI have become more complicated, with concerns about overreliance, reduced learning and the value of a college degree. She also cites ethical concerns beyond academic integrity, including environmental impact and issues related to data and privacy, while noting that AI use is continuing to grow.
She points to Pew Research Center data showing that more than half of teenagers use AI to find information and get help with schoolwork, and says many students arrive in college with established habits around these tools. She argues this is not a reason to ban AI in the classroom but a reason to take its presence seriously.
How should students be expected to explain and document their use of generative AI in coursework?
