Berg, Anastasia. “Opinion | A.I. Threatens Our Ability to Understand the World.” The New York Times, 29 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/opinion/ai-students-thinking-school-reading.html.
Summary:
Anastasia Berg, a professor of philosophy at the University of California discusses that she noticed over half of her students using AI to complete a take-home exam, even though she explicitly stated that this was unacceptable. She talked about how AI used in this way is not just stealing academic skills from students, but basic cognitive skills. Berg explains her concerns about intellectual gifts, individuality, and human expression in regards to students using AI, and is a credible source in this discussion as a humanities professor. She also writes about how language is not just a skill, but something all humans need to use to do “anything at all”, and how AI makes students less capable of developing essential language skills. Berg identifies the use of AI as inevitable and addresses how educators can respond to this to “create cognitively mature adults.”
Why I liked it:
I liked that this professor explained that the problem with her students using AI was not unique, because I am not a professor at a university, but a high school teacher who deals with the exact same issue. She didn’t just talk about how students using AI hurts them academically, but as people navigating the world in which they live. I agree with this concern because being a teacher is not just teaching content, but helping them to become well-rounded members of society that can contribute in positive ways. Berg explains how AI robs students of practicing “elementary powers of thought” which is one of my biggest problems with AI as well; it’s not just the lack of content knowledge students have when using AI, but the lack of work their brain is being trained to do in order to effectively navigate the world they live in that requires them to be problem-solvers and critical, creative thinkers.
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