The Purdue Board of Trustees is likely to be considering adding an artificial intelligence “competency” or “proficiency” standard required for graduation. It is a foolish idea, so it is probable that the trustees will adopt it.
First, artificial intelligence is an incredibly energy wasteful technology that renders the decades of efforts of electrical energy conservation pointless. Why don’t we just have a “damage to the planet” proficiency graduation requirement? Maybe there should be a “social media” proficiency graduation requirement!
My experience as a professor indicates that students are already proficient at the use of artificial intelligence and know far more about it than the members of the Board of Trustees ever will. What ever happened at this university to academic freedom and allowing the faculty to determine the curriculum?
The real reason for this requirement is not the benefit of the students but rather a belated effort to make sure that the professors, that the university has recruited recently on an artificial intelligence hiring binge, have something to teach. Just like the University decided to vastly increase the number of students admitted without making any provision for the housing needed, Purdue has employed new professors without any consideration of which classes they would instruct, and now the administration is, once again, desperately trying to compensate for its lack of planning.
