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In the article, Arnell acknowledges that LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude have their place as tools but argues that students should also be encouraged to flex their mental muscles to develop autonomous intellectual skills.

Although she believes that the liberal arts colleges of the future must teach students about new AI technologies, as Lake Forest College’s minor in AI aims to do, Arnell cautions against overzealous adoption of AI technologies in all courses, noting that “the race to fold GenAI tools into classrooms is misplaced, and the anxiety about being too slow to do so is overwrought. Incoming college students already know much about how to use GenAI—and what they already know is easily adaptable to the level of skill needed for most first-time jobs.”

Arnell's piece reminds readers that students come to college to hone intellectual skills such as critical thinking, crafting arguments, and creative problem solving.

“The emergence of GenAI should be a creative opportunity for higher education,” Arnell writes. “Not because such technology will improve student learning but rather because it will improve teaching. It will force us—some of us, at least—to redouble our efforts on the hard problem of honing human intellects. And that hard work will pay dividends for ourselves and our students.”