IF YOU AREN’T TEACHING THEM AI YOU AREN’T EDUCATING:

Former Cornell president Martha Pollack ’79 urges universities to embrace artificial intelligence (Sohum Desai, April 25, 2025, The Dartmouth)

Pollack offered a three-part framework for introducing AI to pedagogy: AI literacy, integrating AI into classroom practices and increasing institutional efficiency.

“We need to teach students how to use AI well, but also when not to use it,” she said. “Changing pedagogy is really hard but necessary.”

Pollack gave examples of how faculty across disciplines are experimenting with AI, from law professors prompting chatbots to simulate jury reactions to using large language models for feedback generation. She emphasized that while automation may reduce some faculty workload, the student-professor relationship remains central.

“We’re social animals,” Pollack said. “You don’t go to Red Hawk for the beer — you go for the people. What’s true at the bar is true on campus.”

Pollack also expressed concern over the rising cost of higher education and declining public trust in universities, noting that AI might offer tools to help institutions remain accessible and relevant.

“If the AI education costs 50 cents, and the Dartmouth education costs $50, we risk pricing ourselves out of the market,” she said.