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AI Didn’t Break College — It Exposed How Dehumanized Higher Education Has Become

Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says AI has exposed how mechanized and dehumanized higher education became. After finding 400 nearly identical essays, he argues that take-home, formulaic assignments are obsolete and advocates replacing them with in-class writing, oral presentations and student-led discussion. Mintz proposes using AI for mastery learning while refocusing human instruction on inquiry, mentorship and creative problem-solving. He warns that colleges must reinvent assessment within the next five years or risk losing public trust in degrees.

12:04 AM, 12/01/2025Society
AI Didn’t Break College — It Exposed How Dehumanized Higher Education Has Become

When University of Texas at Austin history professor Steven Mintz opened 400 student essays, he found an unsettling sameness: identical sentences, matching structures and very similar conclusions. That moment, he argues, was less a cheating scandal than a revelation about pedagogy itself.

From factory model to visible learning

Mintz says many universities have long operated like factories: mass lectures, standardized prompts and rubric-driven grading carried out largely by overburdened teaching assistants. What has been presented as mentorship, he contends, is often "industrialized education" that prioritizes mechanical tasks over original thinking.

"Machines can already do most of what we ask students to do — and often do it better. When 400 students can generate identical essays in 30 seconds, the problem isn't the students. The problem is the assignment," Mintz wrote.

Because take-home, formulaic essays test exactly the skills at which current AI excels—assembling research, synthesizing context and producing structured arguments—Mintz has moved away from outside-the-classroom essays toward assessments that make learning visible in real time. His preferred methods include in-class writing, oral presentations without extensive notes, and student-led discussions.

Use AI for mastery, humans for inquiry

Rather than viewing AI as an existential threat, Mintz proposes using it for "mastery learning": conveying basic facts, timelines and conceptual frameworks. That would free instructors and students to focus on "inquiry learning": posing original questions, developing complex arguments and engaging in mentorship-driven projects.

He urges universities to strengthen core literacies—research, writing, numeracy and critical reading—but to require work that demonstrates creativity and independent thought rather than formulaic responses. He also calls for greater investment in seminars, mentorship models, undergraduate research and experiential learning.

"We must ensure that students graduate with the ability to conduct research, write and speak clearly and analytically, read closely and critically, be numerate, culturally literate, and well prepared for their future careers," he wrote.

A crossroads for higher education

Mintz warns that if colleges double down on surveillance, standardized tests and obsolete assignments, public confidence in higher education and the value of degrees may erode. Instead, he sees the next five years as a crucial window for reinvention—redesigning assessment, emphasizing slow reading, ethical dilemmas, historical reasoning, data fluency and creative problem-solving.

In his view, AI functions as a mirror: it does not create dehumanization but reveals how thoroughly education has been mechanized—and it offers an opportunity to recover the human dimensions of teaching and learning.

Key takeaways: Replace formulaic outside essays with observable, in-person assessments; use AI to automate rote mastery; rebuild curricula around inquiry, mentorship and experiential learning.

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