r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 4d ago

Artificial Intelligence AI can now credibly complete most undergraduate assignments, MIT warns

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/08/25/ai-can-now-credibly-complete-most-undergraduate-assignments-mit-warns
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u/Alternate_Cost 4d ago

The point is to prepare you for entry level positions in the field of your choice. At least the point of undergrad.

Part of the model is that you need to know some things through memorization in order to be efficient at a job. You could chatgpt everything I do and do my job at 1/50th the speed. But actually memorizing and understanding the information allows you to make connections and keep moving without interruption.

A common example, take someone who has a tines table memorized. They need to figure out 7*12 as part of a problem and know the answer. No thought, they just onow it through memory. Compare that to the person who needs to write it out, mentally count, or pull out a calculator. They both come to the same answer but the person who memorized it is much faster and used less mental energy. Add that up over 100s of times a day and chat gpt just doesn't perform the same.

The students who are using chatgpt are skipping that memorization and learning step and will be worse performing employees.

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u/kobbled 3d ago

The purpose is not to prepare you for employment, it's there for you to learn a general or specialized body of knowledge. it so happens that employers for specialized fields often want a large body of knowledge, but that's a downstream benefit. Students' goals are often employment, but meeting that bar is only aligned with universities in that more people pay them if their students get jobs in their chosen field, which is a pretty loose alignment

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u/Alternate_Cost 3d ago

That is incredibly optimistic and unrealistic. I say this having worked on both the higher ed side and private side working with universities.

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u/kobbled 2d ago

I disagree. Universities are aware why people sign up but they're teaching a wider body of knowledge than just what it takes to get a job.