Good call, University of Chicago. Sometimes the best classroom technology is no technology at all

If a muscle atrophies, our bodies weaken. We can’t walk very far, we can’t lift things. When your ability to think atrophies, well, that’s arguably a whole lot worse. “Cogito, ergo sum,” or — “I think, therefore I am,” as René Descartes put it. Thinking, thus, is as elemental as breathing. Universities should create the conditions for students to learn how to do it well, and the University of Chicago (U. of C.) has struck an important blow to that end. Leaning on the convenience of artificial intelligence for writing assignments comes at a cognitive cost: A reduction in critical thinking, according to a 2025 study from researchers at MIT, Wellesley and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. A new policy for the U. of C.’s social sciences core aims to return the classroom to an analog experience in which students must generally read, write and analyze without AI’s assistance. “At UChicago, we train students to use both reason and specialized knowledge in preparation for life as a free person,” the memo from Social Sciences Collegiate Division Master Jenny Tri