I also wanted to highlight a piece in Blood in the Machine. Cognitive scientists and artificial intelligence researchers have issued a strong call for academia to reject the uncritical adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. In a recently published position paper, a group led by researchers from universities in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and the United States warns that the unchecked integration of corporate AI products threatens to deskill students and undermine critical thinking. The paper, titled “Against the Uncritical Adoption of ‘AI’ Technologies in Academia,” argues that universities must actively counter the hype surrounding AI and prioritize the educational needs of students. This follows an open letter signed by over 1,100 academics, calling for a more cautious approach to the proliferation of AI in educational settings. The researchers emphasize the need to protect academic integrity and maintain a critical stance towards technological advancements, urging institutions to reconsider their financial ties with AI companies.
Why do we care?
Here’s a spicy one. A bunch of cognitive scientists and AI experts are telling universities—“stop drinking the AI Kool-Aid.” Their fear? That students will get lazy, lose critical thinking skills, and just ride corporate AI tools instead of actually learning.
Those students are tomorrow’s workforce—and maybe your next hire. If they’ve been trained to lean on automation without really understanding the “why,” you end up with techs who can follow prompts but can’t problem-solve when stuff breaks. Sound familiar?
And honestly, this isn’t just academia’s problem. It’s a warning for us too. Vendors are shoving AI into everything. If we just swallow it uncritically, we’re no better than those universities signing up for shiny tools without asking hard questions. The real job is to figure out—does this actually help outcomes? Or is it just vendor hype with an AI sticker on it?