From Debate To Copy and Paste: How AI Drains Flavor From College Discussions

From elementary school through college, more students are turning to large language models to think for them, raising concerns about declining cognitive skills and academic performance.

With AI in full throttle, Ivy League students are noticing that ChatGPT is seeping into seminars, turning what used to be discussions riddled with individuality into flat, predictable discourse.

Amanda, a Yale student, recently highlighted the shift, telling CNN about an awkward classroom moment when she noticed “someone typing ferociously on their laptop, asking [AI] the same question my professor had just posed about the reading.”

“Everyone now kind of sounds the same,” she said. “I feel like during my freshman year in college, I would sit in seminars where everyone had something different to contribute. Although people would piggyback off each other, they approached from different angles and offered different commentary.”

From elementary school through college, more students are turning to large language models to do their thinking for them, raising concerns about declining cognitive skills and academic performance. By early 2026, an estimated 54%–60% of U.S. students were using generative AI for schoolwork, a jump of more than 15 percentage points in just one to two years.

While the tools can boost efficiency, experts warn they encourage “cognitive offloading,” weakening critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, concerns shared by about 70% of teachers. Jessica, a Yale senior, described how AI is now the go-to source at the start of nearly every class.

“At the beginning of class, you could see every single person putting every single PDF [into AI],” she said.

Some reports suggest up to 86% of students and 80% of undergraduates are using AI for schoolwork. While it can boost grades with quick, polished results, it may come at the cost of deeper learning, potentially leading to weaker performance over time without the tool.

Meanwhile, educators are expressing growing worry about the trend, with about 88% of faculty having raised concerns about declining critical thinking. Even among students, 60% say they worry about AI’s impact on their own learning.