U. of Chicago is Treating AI Like a Learning Multiplier Instead of a Cheating Machine.

For the past few years, much of higher education has treated artificial intelligence like contraband.

Students are going to use it, professors know they’re going to use it, and everyone spends an enormous amount of time pretending otherwise.

The University of Chicago is trying something different.

The university is making Claude available across campus for research, education and administrative work. Its stated goal is to teach students “how to think with machines, how to think without them, and how to think about them.”

Let’s be honest: that may be the most sensible approach yet.

AI is already becoming a standard workplace tool. Employers will expect graduates to know how to use it—not merely to generate text, but to research faster, analyze information, improve their writing, test ideas and solve problems.

Why wouldn’t those same abilities improve education?

A student struggling with a difficult concept can ask AI to explain it five different ways. It can create practice questions, identify weaknesses in an argument, critique a draft or act as a tutor that never runs out of patience. It can eliminate hours spent searching for the right explanation and allow students to spend more time understanding the material.

One University of Chicago professor told The College Fix that AI has at least doubled productivity for him and his students.

Of course, productivity isn’t necessarily learning. If Claude writes the paper, solves the equation or completes the assignment, the student may finish faster while learning nothing.

But that isn’t an argument against AI. It’s an argument for teaching students how to use it properly—and designing assignments that still require them to think.

Education has never been improved by making students perform unnecessary work merely because previous generations had to do it. Calculators didn’t eliminate mathematics. Computers didn’t eliminate writing. Search engines didn’t eliminate research.

AI doesn’t have to eliminate learning.

Think about it (or have Claude think about it for you): if used correctly, AI could help students learn considerably more.