A college student relaxes on the bed in his untidy dorm room while talking on the phone, and across the room a robot wearing a sports jersey with the letters "AI" works at a desk typing on a laptop computer. Generated with AI by ZeNpUsS via Adobe Stock.
Is Artificial Intelligence Destroying Education? That’s the question posed in a recent episode of Viewpoints Radio, featuring Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. The podcast guests discuss how AI tools are impacting learning through increased cheating, declining writing skills, and reduced student engagement.
"Artificial intelligence is eroding the process of learning...you need to be able to learn and master the material without the use of AI,” said Green. “I think there's an important case to be made for the importance of doing the work yourself.”
The New York Magazine’s Intelligencer further explored this issue in an article titled, “Everybody is Cheating Their Way Through College,” by James D. Walsh. It details how generative AI has normalized cheating, quoting Green: “We’re talking about an entire generation of learning perhaps significantly undermined here.”
Walsh notes that “half of all undergrads have never experienced college without easy access to generative AI,” including tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Microsoft’s Copilot.
At Santa Clara University, 2024-25 Hackworth Fellows Tara Khambadkone ‘26 and Sophie Smithstanza ‘26 surveyed faculty and students about AI’s impact. Their findings, presented at the 2025 Student Ethics Project Showcase, revealed that 52% of students believed AI could replace traditional schooling. Faculty expressed greater concern than students, with one professor reporting retiring early due to AI’s effect on learning. One student reported they felt “really sad” towards the decline of active learning among their peers.
The conversation extends to the workplace. In her article, “Who Cares About the Ethics of AI? Women Do,” Senior Director of Leadership Ethics Ann Skeet highlights a gender gap in AI adoption that has the potential to negatively impact women’s future advancement in the workplace.
Studies show that women use AI tools 25% less than men on average, and may experience "moral injury" when forced to use technology they feel undermines human connection or undermines policy: “Dignity speaks to one’s sense of being worthy and also of self-respect. Asking women, in fact asking anyone, to use AI that compromises their ethics compromises their dignity,” said Skeet.
Skeet urges companies to take a more thoughtful approach to AI integration, mindful of its social and ethical consequences.
As this AI-native generation enters the workforce, ethical frameworks like the ITEC Handbook—a free resource from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics—can guide organizations in responsibly navigating generative AI and integrating disruptive technologies.
For deeper insight, explore our Ethics Spotlight on Generative AI, and our newest resource –a guide to AI Ethics Literacy curated by Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, and Subramaniam Vincent, director, journalism and media ethics.
Grace Woidat ’25, a communications and French studies double major, International business minor, and was a 2024-25 marketing and communications intern at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, authored this story.