Universities would prefer no AI
hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com
Universities would prefer no AI
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Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#2> The elite research layer of higher education (Stanford, Berkeley, MIT) is still an AI accelerant. But across the country, as Scott Latham told me, “the vast majority of institutions are in a state of AI paralysis.”
Tbf, the vast majority of institutions also suck.
State flagships and some of their second rung, a couple ivies and ivy tier privates, and military academies provide the bulk of talent that you need. And these universities have dedicated pipelines for people who start off at community colleges.
These universities are also much larger - UC Berkeley's and UCLA's 2025 undergrad population is almost double it's 1960 population [0].
And those who had skill or educational deficiencies can remediate them via non-trad or working professionals masters like GT, UT Austin, and CU Boulder's OMSCS for less than $15k.
[0] - https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-...
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#3"Institution that assigns homework would prefer you not have a machine do your homework for you"
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#4> The elite research layer of higher education (Stanford, Berkeley, MIT) is still an AI accelerant. But across the country, as Scott Latham told me, “the vast majority of institutions are in a state of AI paralysis.” Tbf, the vast majority of institutions also suck . State flagships and some of their second rung, a couple ivies and ivy tier privates, and military academies provide the bulk of talent that you need. An…
Ah, sure, they train enough people to serve all needs. What a load of poppy cock.
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#5> The elite research layer of higher education (Stanford, Berkeley, MIT) is still an AI accelerant. But across the country, as Scott Latham told me, “the vast majority of institutions are in a state of AI paralysis.” Tbf, the vast majority of institutions also suck . State flagships and some of their second rung, a couple ivies and ivy tier privates, and military academies provide the bulk of talent that you need. An…
Ah, sure, they train enough people to serve all needs. What a load of poppy cock.
They do.
The top 20 CS/EE/CE/ECE/EE degree programs (MIT, CMU, Stanford, Cal, UIUC, GT, UT Austin, Purdue, UW, UCLA, UCSD, Ivies, UChicago, NYU, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, USC, UMinn, UMich) graduate around 15k-20k undergrads a year.
Throw in the next rung of well respected universities (eg. the rest of the state flagships like ASU or IU, the respected regional public programs like CalPoly, NCSU, or SUNY Buffalo, and the handful of regionally respected privates like WPI, Cincy, or both Rochesters) and that number likely doubles.
If you're graduating almost 50k grads a year from target programs, there just isn't enough room for the rest.
Choosing to go to (randomly choosing two universities to pick on) USF or TCU for CS straight out of HS instead of going to your local CC and then transferring to UC Davis or UT Dallas is dumb.
In 1980 you had a little under 2,000 4-year colleges in the US. In 2010 you had almost 3,000 4-year colleges after which the number of institutions started declining. Making more colleges while existing colleges were expanding headcount did nothing to help.
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#6"Institution that assigns homework would prefer you not have a machine do your homework for you"
It’s almost like a place focused on improving the human should operate differently from a place building commercial products.
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#7And for the good reason. I have yet to see 1 (one) reason how giving infinite cheat machine to students is of any benefit to them.
The secret to mastery remained unchanged for a thousand years: books, lectures and homework. All of this can be done with pen and paper level of technology.
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#8>the two most reliable places to get an answer are the physical library and AI.
Uh in what universe? Obviously physical books are helpful but are not most of the new ones being written with the assistance of an LLM?
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#9"Institution that assigns homework would prefer you not have a machine do your homework for you"
It’s almost like a place focused on improving the human should operate differently from a place building commercial products.
Couldn't agree more, and yet, attendance itself is a commerical product.
Re: Universities would prefer no AI
#10I'm not sure what to make of this? Is any healthy skepticism about AI now treated as motivated luddism?
Academics has its many issues but universities are hardly the only sources of criticism about AI, and for all its benefits AI is poorly understood and often applied in relatively half-assed ways, even when it's well-intended. I would worry if thoughtful individuals weren't skeptical at all about AI.
It also seems reasonable to, say, want to evaluate students on their own merits free of the influence of a "homework machine" (to borrow a phrase from Shel Silverstein).
I'm reluctant to make predictions, and wouldn't describe myself as "anti-AI" but this sort of piece reminds me uncannily of the dot-com bubble.