MIT report: AI broke campus learning — oral exams, portfolios and scrapping grades proposed
JohnAlexander · x · 2026-09-13
An MIT committee of professors and students spent five months studying how AI changed learning on campus, and the findings read like a warning to every university.
Key points:
- Study groups and office hours are disappearing; problem sets and take-home exams no longer prove anything since AI can solve nearly any written assignment.
- Students leaning on chatbots lose mastery and confidence, slipping into what the report calls "cognitive surrender."
- 46% of surveyed MIT undergraduates reported heavy reliance on AI.
- MIT proposes rebuilding education around what AI can't replace: oral exams, semester portfolios, in-person project work, and a required social component — plus rethinking grades entirely, since without a GPA to optimize, much of the incentive to cheat with AI evaporates.
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