As a college student in 2025, it feels like I have AI fatigue. In every class, in every assignment, artificial intelligence is a debate. Whether it’s presented as an ethical issue or straight up a banned resource, it feels so confusing when no one seems to know what the future holds for us.Â
In one of my classes this year, a professor told us that he was alright with us using AI because it seems hopeless to try to stop people from using it. He said he felt like we would be put at a disadvantage if we didn’t learn how to properly use large language models efficiently. While I agree AI chatbots can be used as a great resource, such as being a “thought partner,” I think there are great dangers contributing to a lack of critical thinking when using them.
At the same time, another disadvantage is the rise in the use of AI, impacting the job market. The New York Times reported in December 2025 that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6 percent, the highest level in four years.
“Wages growth also slowed to 3.5 percent, the slowest pace since before the pandemic, the report showed. And, for many Americans, the gains in wages may not have offset the impact of rising prices.”
NYTimes
Now, it feels like everyone is saying entry-level jobs are being replaced by robots. While not totally true, APD research has found “a substantial decline in employment for early-career workers in occupations most exposed to AI, such as software development and customer support.”
On the other hand, professor and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom says that AI is “mid” tech. She argues that it does not replace critical thinking and states, “Most of us aren’t using A.I. to save lives faster and better. We are using A.I. to make mediocre improvements, such as emailing more. Even the most enthusiastic papers about A.I.’s power to augment white-collar work have struggled to come up with something more exciting than “A brief that once took two days to write will now take two hours!”
The key issues with AI are ownership, reliability and replicability. For one, if AI generates your argument, you can’t defend it, extend it or take responsibility for it. Also, you should be able to trace how you know what you know. If you can’t show your reasoning process, you don’t have knowledge — you have a product. Additionally, AI cannot verify its own claims. The responsibility for accuracy always rests with the writer.
While I don’t believe in AI as a substitute for knowledge, I do think it can be helpful for workers and students alike. The misuse of it, though, can lead to a society without thinking and a great spread of misinformation.
Artificial intelligence seems like the defining feature of our generation. We are the first ones in history to graduate with this at the forefront of our minds. Though balancing the excitement of human progress in technology with the realities of its implementation is frightening.Â