A.I.: What should students know as they make choices about college and future careers?

Maggie Bergeron

College Readiness Coordinator

In 2024 I was asked to organize a group of faculty in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities to spend a semester thinking about A.I., specifically Large Language Models, and how it could be used to support teaching and learning in their classrooms. “What value does A.I. add to my classroom?” was asked over and over in different ways throughout the semester and different people drew different conclusions at the end of our work:

• One faculty member in the group ended up creating a chatbot that walks students through a process to figure out a speech topic, but then ultimately decided that the classroom community and peer feedback was ultimately more impactful than the chatbot.
• Another faculty member created a number of optional writing “side quests” that allowed students to engage with A.I. in different ways throughout the writing course.
• A different faculty member developed an assignment that asked students to read all of the privacy policies that we sign off on (check “accept” and get on with it!) when we use A.I. and then discuss what these policies actually mean for privacy.
• On the other hand, a few faculty members decided utilizing A.I. did not add value to their classrooms. 

So what do these different ways of thinking about A.I. in the classroom mean for students who are headed to college soon? How should they be thinking about using A.I.? What will they need to know about A.I. in postsecondary? These big questions are being discussed and debated continuously. While this debate continues, I will offer my own thoughts below.

1. Time + effort = learning. 

Learning changes the way our brains are structured. Every time students memorize a list of vocabulary words, learn about a process such as cell replication, or work within a group to create a presentation their brains are making new connections. These connections continue to build upon each other as learning ensues. The brain is not a muscle, but it acts like a muscle and students need to continue to use it to keep it strong. When students ask A.I. to do the work of learning for them, such as writing a paper or solving math problems, they miss the opportunity to build their brains. This is not OK! Students ought to utilize every chance they can get for their brains to make new and meaningful connections.

2. Protect privacy.

Most of the time when people upload any words or images into A.I. tools, this information becomes a part of a gigantic pool of data that A.I. uses to create its responses to the prompt, and then every other response it offers anyone else into the future. In essence, this gives away the rights to your work, others’ works, and even your name once you put it into the prompt box. This can be illegal, too, especially if people upload copyrighted material, such as articles, stories, books, assignment prompts, etc. So, students need to think carefully before putting anything into a prompt box. To be clear, it is not OK for students to upload anything that is not their own words or creations. It is especially not OK to upload names or other information that is private or protected in some way.

3. Be familiar with A.I., but not dependent on it.

It is a good idea to experiment with A.I., even just a little, before heading to college. College professors may require use of A.I. tools, or they may not, depending on the school, program, and field you choose. Regardless, if students are comfortable, they might find a free version of an A.I. tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, etc.), and prompt it to give practice problems for a math concept you are learning, study questions for a book, or to organize study time. Students could give the tool prompts that are worded differently to see how that changes the results. Conversely, students may find some useful ways to use A.I. in their lives, such as planning a trip. If students end up using A.I. for studying, they need to be sure that they treat it as a thought partner, not as the “only” or “right” way.

4. Think critically about A.I. outputs.

A.I. is not always truthful, it does not know when it is lying. Because of the way it scrapes large swaths of information, it sometimes will give users an output that is simply not true, or reflects bias that can be found online. It currently has no way of knowing that it is lying, but if users fact check using a reliable source, they may discover what it gives you is simply not true. Always check a few different sources to be sure that any A.I. output is accurate and unbiased. 

5. A.I. has an environmental impact and it is not a small one.
 
A.I. uses a large amount of energy and water to support all the data that it uses to respond to prompts across the world. This is something for all users to consider. Sometimes it may just be best to do the “work” without an A.I. tool.

The New York Times recently published a piece titled, Where is A.I. Taking Us?, asking eight experts in different fields related to A.I., “What advice would you give a high school student about how to think about A.I. and prepare for the future?” The experts’ thoughts offer students a lot to consider as they think about their futures:
 

“Learn about how these systems work, what their limitations are, and how to use them to help you do things rather than do them for you. Don’t use them to do your homework!”

Melanie Mitchell Computer scientist

“As automated writing becomes ubiquitous, face-to-face skill will be a key differentiator. Choose careers defined by change, where human interaction and experiential learning confer the edge.”

Carl Benedikt Frey Economist

“Creativity and critical thinking skills will always be in demand.”

Gary Marcus Cognitive scientist

“Learn to collaborate with A.I. Study fields that combine technical literacy with skills that only humans can do.”

Nick Frosst Co-founder of Cohere

“Think of A.I. as the emergence of an intelligent alien species. This new species could be catastrophic for humanity, including driving us extinct. It could also go extremely well for us, but you should be prepared for the good outcomes to be very wild. This is the central challenge of your generation, and you should try to find a way to help it go better.”

Ajeya Cotra A.I. risk researcher

“Learn how to ask more questions. Nothing will matter more in the age of A.I.”

Aravind Srinivas Chief executive of Perplexity

“For anything you might work on, ask yourself: Is this like a construction site, or like the gym? On a construction site, machines are amazing — you can lift heavier things and build better buildings with an excavator and a crane. But at the gym, the whole point is to increase your own capacity.

With A.I., the analogy is that we now all need to figure out where A.I. can help us do bigger, cooler things, like building personalized software, and where we need to build our own cognitive abilities first, like learning to write.”

Helen Toner A.I. policy researcher

“This is the first time in history nobody has any idea what the world will look like in 10 years — what the job market will look like, what social relations will look like, et cetera. So hedge your bets. Don’t focus on a narrow subject like coding. Give equal importance to your head (intellectual skills), your heart (social skills) and your hands (motor skills). It is in the combination of these three that humans still have a large advantage over A.I.”

Yuval Noah Harari Historian

My own advice for students can be summed up into one sentence: Your head, heart, and hands make you unmistakably human in our A.I. era, and building your brains as much as you can before you go to college, and when you are in college, is really important as you imagine, drive, and experience our unfolding future.

About the Author
Maggie Bergeron, M.A., is the College Readiness Coordinator in the College Readiness Consortium at the University of Minnesota. The College Readiness Consortium aims to prepare all students to be college-ready through collaborations with K-12 administrators and educators, as well as UMN staff who work with K-12 students across the UMN campuses. Maggie has extensive experience teaching, leading, and designing faculty development in K-12, higher education, and non-profit contexts. She co-authored Approaching College with Purpose (2022), a first-year experience college success text.