The curse of AI in higher education and research

I have had many frustrating experiences with mentees and others who are smart but overrely on AI for their work these days. The reliance on AI for coding is not the issue. The problem is that they set their human brains (which are typically quite adept!) aside when they work with AI, and over time, this sets in real rot of critical and deep thinking. When candidates interview confidently and answer hard interview questions, a second round comprising a data analysis challenge usually reveals the issues. During this second interview, I ask conceptual questions. Only if the applicant has taken some minimal effort to understand the code and the concepts involved in the analysis and has thought a bit about the cognitive questions driving the data analysis challenge can they pass the bar for entry to the lab. Ten years ago, most people with master's degrees (and sometimes research experience in the same domain!) from IITs and other reputed colleges and universities would have been able to pass this bar. Not anymore, and that is sad. 

Everyone seems to be a prompt engineer now. Even people who say that they're interested in becoming scientists. I simply cannot train someone who does not ask questions about basic assumptions that go into an AI-generated piece of code or about the larger cognitive science considerations that drove the analysis in the first place. 

I am not blaming the students for this. Had I gotten my education in the times of Gen-AI, perhaps I too would have fallen prey to these bad habits due to the immense pressure exerted by the education system and AI-accelerated research targets that pressurize PhD students everywhere. So it really is about the system and the incentive structures driven by AI. However, with some will, it is possible to get out of this vicious cycle that offloads your brain. I do have a few rare students who have not yet fallen prey to this phenomenon, and they tend to ask better and deeper research questions during our interactions. 


 

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