Rufaro Mafinyani suggests that preventing the use of AI in student assignments in higher education is misguided (“Why universities must embrace AI as a tool, not a threat”, May 8).
He is correct that AI is a powerful tool and that AI literacy is now a requirement for the job market. However, it does not follow that every element of learning should involve AI or that the recall of information from memory is now redundant. This is like telling someone not to bother learning a language because they can use Google Translate.
The point of writing an assignment is not simply to produce it fast but for the students to undergo a transformation through the process. By researching, connecting ideas and articulating a narrative, students internalise the content of their subject.
Education research shows that learning is more effective when students actively generate knowledge than when they passively read. Which has more educational value: spending days puzzling out an assignment or getting AI to generate a draft the student merely reads over before submitting?
AI literacy is not the only capacity students need. The goal is to incorporate AI without short-circuiting broader intellectual development.
