“I am shocked!”

Higher education has a problem.

By now, you’ve seen the Brown University and Alcorn State cheating scandals – students caught red-handed using AI to do homework, take exams, and otherwise do the work of learning for them. And Brown and Alcorn are not unique – this is happening in every institution, everywhere, every day.

It’s hard to blame the students. They are simply seeking the path of least resistance to accomplish their goal of graduating with a degree, under the belief that employers will see the degree as proof that the student received an education. That degree translates to job offers and signing bonuses.

Until it doesn’t.

The generation of students graduating from college today spent their junior and senior years of high school in lockdown, taking their classes through ‘remote learning’. Sometimes remote learning worked. More often it didn’t. Secondary educators knew that, but there was nothing they could do about it. High School diplomas were mailed and out the door the student went.

Those students began college the same year ChatGPT 3.5 was released. AI seemed to be a savior to this cohort – they lost their last 2 years of high school, but AI let them cover that gap. Sure, they wrote a big check for the diploma, but student loans are cheap, and 4 years ago when they took out that loan we were all talking about forgiving student loans altogether. Why not?

So now, the Class of 2026 is entering the labor market with their last 6 years of education being mostly fictional and in debt up to their eyeballs. The labor market they are entering is in turmoil as employers attempt to assimilate AI into their businesses, and many are using AI to perform the lower-level work that was the traditional role for new hires.

When employers do bring on new hires, they are discovering that the newbies are using AI to do their work. The problem is that they didn’t learn enough in college to formulate good prompts, or know when AI has hallucinated a wrong answer. They are functionally illiterate on topics that they hold a degree in.

If you’re an employer, why would you hire someone (who doesn’t really know the skill you need them for very well) to use AI, when you can give AI tools to your current employees who DO know the topic?

How did this happen? I put the blame squarely on higher ed. The fact that students were and are making extensive use of AI is an open secret. I see shades of Captain Renault proclaiming that he’s shocked – shocked! – to find AI use in classes. They let this happen.

I’m afraid the current generation of graduates is in a very bad spot. I don’t know how you go back and give them the 6 years of education they missed. But colleges and universities are being absolutely irresponsible if they allow students to make extensive use of AI to earn their degrees. They are churning out a product that nobody wants – functional illiterates – and charging them exorbitant tuition and fees to do it.