Professors fear students are outsourcing critical thinking to AI. Here are 5 ways they can fight back, a researcher says.

"In an essay for The Conversation published on Sunday, Anitia Lubbe, an associate professor at North-West University in South Africa, said universities are "focusing only on policing" AI use instead of asking a more fundamental question: whether students are really learning. Most assessments, she wrote, still reward memorization and rote learning - "exactly the tasks that AI performs best." Lubbe warned that unless universities rethink how they teach and assess students, they risk producing graduates who can use AI but not critique its output."

"Lubbe warned that unless universities rethink how they teach and assess students, they risk producing graduates who can use AI but not critique its output. "This should include the ability to evaluate and analyse AI-created text," she wrote. "That's a skill which is essential for critical thinking." Instead of banning AI, Lubbe said, universities should use it to teach what machines can't do - reflection, judgment, and ethical reasoning."

"She proposes five ways educators can fight back: 1. Teach students to evaluate AI output as a skill She said professors should make students interrogate AI generative tools' output - asking them to identify where an AI-generated answer is inaccurate, biased, or shallow before they can use it in their own work. That, she said, is how students learn to think critically about information rather than just consume it. 2. Scaffold assignments across multipl"

Professors across university campuses are facing plagiarism concerns as students increasingly use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. The deeper problem is that higher education continues to test skills that AI performs best, with assessments rewarding memorization and rote learning. Graduates risk being able to use AI tools without the capacity to critique or evaluate their outputs. The ability to evaluate and analyse AI-created text is essential to critical thinking. Rather than banning AI, educators should integrate it to teach reflection, judgment, and ethical reasoning. Recommended strategies include teaching evaluation of AI output and scaffolding assignments.

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