Generative AI is in Canadian universities, and it is changing everything from how professors teach to how students learn.

A few months ago, Amanda Perry, who teaches literature at Champlain College Saint-Lambert and Concordia University in Montreal, wrote in The Walrus about a split among professors over the use of AI in the classroom. Some of them were embracing it in an attempt to model proper use for students, while others reverted to old-school methods of evaluation to prevent their students from using it.

This time, she is back with a new piece exploring how the divide around AI is playing out within the student body. For The Walrus, she spoke with several college students who detailed their stances and ethical codes surrounding AI, and the ways they do and don’t use the technology in their work. 

Here’s what some of them had to say.

“Obviously, failing and struggling is not fun, but the sense of pride and succeeding afterwards is very, very motivating for me. And I don’t think you’d get that same kick or that same hit from getting a ninety from ChatGPT versus getting a ninety over an essay where you spent six hours in a basement with your cup of coffee and your eyes went criss-cross at the end of it.”

- Chloé Thibault, a humanities student who has an “anti-AI” stance.

“My whole disdain for AI is because I feel like it’s better than me, and it gives me this feeling that I’m worse than a robot or machine.”

- Arielle Wong, a double major in computational arts and computer science at Concordia University, who says she avoids AI “unless [she’s] really desperate.”

“I do use AI as I am a very busy person and I can’t really handle everything.” 

- James Victor Alvarez, a computer science undergraduate, who is an enthusiastic adopter of the technology. He says he uploads course materials to Gemini Notebook to generate study guides and assignment schedules.

Some students completely refuse the technology and are frustrated with those who use it. Others embrace it with varying degrees of enthusiasm. And then there are some who use it out of fear of being outperformed by their AI-using classmates. 

In any case, the wide range of opinions surrounding the use of AI for schoolwork has resulted in group projects becoming something of a “minefield,” some of the students explained.

It’s worth noting that while most students (73%) admitted to using AI for coursework in a survey conducted by the accounting firm KPMG last year, nearly half (48%) also thought it was worsening their critical thinking skills.

“And that,” Perry writes, “is the paradox in a nutshell: the technology may be helping students succeed at school while making them worse at the skills schools are supposed to teach.”

Does that mean higher education is doomed?

Professor of philosophy and of religion Robert Gibbs didn’t think so last September, when he answered that question for The Walrus, but he argued there were changes to be made. 

According to Perry, the answer might lie with the students themselves. “In the end,” she writes, “their debate is what might ultimately shape what education becomes.”

You can read Perry’s full piece detailing her conversations with college students about their AI use here.