A new wave of AI tools is reshaping education, but not necessarily in a way that strengthens learning. In the article “AI Is Destroying the University (and Learning Itself)” from Current Affairs, the author argues that modern universities are being pushed toward a model where appearing to learn matters more than actually learning. And generative AI is accelerating that shift.

The core problem isn’t simply that students can use AI to cheat. It’s that many students are already overwhelmed, disengaged, or working long hours just to stay afloat. When you combine pressure, exhaustion, and rising costs with technology that can instantly produce essays, summaries, and discussion posts, it becomes easier to “complete” school without building real skills. The result is a system where learning becomes optional, while grades, credentials, and performance metrics remain the main focus.

The article suggests that universities are increasingly acting like businesses. They compete for enrollment, depend on tuition revenue, and rely on customer satisfaction. In that environment, administrators are often incentivized to keep students paying and progressing rather than holding a strict academic line. If too many students fail, it becomes a retention problem. If standards go down, nobody complains. AI fits perfectly into this dynamic because it allows academic tasks to be finished faster, with less effort, and with fewer consequences.

Another major point is that universities now treat education as a product delivered efficiently, not as a challenging process of growth. Many assignments have become repetitive and predictable. Students learn how to “play the game” by submitting work that matches expectations, even if it doesn’t reflect genuine understanding. Generative AI makes that performance easier than ever, producing polished content that looks credible, especially when instructors are overloaded and can’t deeply evaluate every student’s work.

The author warns that this changes how students think about knowledge itself. If you can prompt an AI to produce the right-looking answer instantly, the temptation is to skip the hard part: reading carefully, struggling with ideas, writing drafts, building arguments, and improving over time. Over time, that undermines the habit of learning, replacing it with the habit of outsourcing.

The article also challenges the idea that AI is just another tool like calculators or spellcheck. Writing is not only a way to show knowledge, but a way to develop it. Removing that process doesn’t just change how students complete assignments. It changes how they think, reason, and build intellectual confidence.

In the end, the warning is clear: if universities continue to prioritize speed, credentials, and measurable outputs over actual education, AI will not “improve learning.” It will finish the transformation of higher education into a system that certifies people without teaching them, leaving students less prepared and society worse off.