My University Replaced Professors with AI: I Tested It for 30 Days
By Alex Chen, a senior at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
This semester, my university, Cal State, became the first in the nation to go “all-in” on AI, partnering with Amazon and OpenAI. I was told this would empower my learning. After 30 days, I feel less like a student and more like a beta tester in a massive, unnerving experiment.
On the first day of my senior-level “Digital Marketing Strategy” course, I walked into a lecture hall with 150 other students and found our professor, Dr. Evans, standing by the door, greeting us. He didn’t go to the podium. Instead, he directed us to log into a new system on our laptops.
“Welcome,” he said. “This semester, your primary instructor will be ‘Athena,’ an AI tutor developed with Amazon Web Services. I will be your facilitator.”
A stunned silence fell over the room. We weren’t just getting access to a new tool like ChatGPT Edu, which the university rolled out to all 460,000 students in the Cal State system this fall. Our entire curriculum, our lectures, our assignments—everything would now be mediated through an AI.nytimes+1
This is the reality of the landmark partnership Cal State announced to become the nation’s “first and largest A.I.-empowered” university. They say they aren’t replacing professors. But after 30 days in this new reality, I can tell you: it sure feels like they did. This is my story from the front lines of the AI education revolution.calstate
What is “AI-Empowered” Education, Really?
This initiative, which involves major tech companies like Amazon, OpenAI, and Nvidia, was framed as a way to prepare students for the future AI-driven economy. The official line is that it provides “equitable access” to cutting-edge technology.latimes
But what does that mean in practice? Here’s what my first 30 days have looked like.
- No More Lectures: Dr. Evans doesn’t lecture anymore. Instead, we spend class time in a “learning lab” where we complete modules generated by the “Athena” AI. The AI provides text, video clips, and interactive exercises.
- AI as the First Responder: If I have a question about a concept, I’m required to ask the Athena chatbot first. Only if the chatbot can’t answer my question can I raise my hand to speak with Dr. Evans, who now roams the room like a TA.
- Grading by Algorithm: Our weekly assignments are submitted directly to the AI, which grades them instantly based on a rubric. My first paper came back with feedback that was grammatically perfect but completely missed the nuance of my argument.
- Corporate Branding Everywhere: The learning modules are filled with references to Amazon’s “Think Big” principles, and we are constantly prompted to use AWS-branded tools to complete tasks. It feels less like a university course and more like corporate onboarding.nytimes
This isn’t just one class. Across the Cal State system, this model is being rolled out for everything from computer science to zoology. The university says this will give us the AI skills employers are looking for, but many of us are worried it’s undermining the very critical thinking skills a university is supposed to teach.nytimes
The 30-Day Test: Pros and Cons of an AI Professor
I came into this experiment with an open mind. As a tech-savvy student, I was excited. But the reality is a mix of incredible efficiency and profound disappointment.
My AI Professor: The Honest Pros & Cons
| Feature | The Good (The Promise) | The Bad (The Reality) | The Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24/7 Availability | The AI is always on. I can ask it a question at 2 AM and get an instant answer. | The answers are often generic and lack the depth of a real professor’s experience. | Great for simple, factual questions. Terrible for complex, nuanced ones. |
| Personalized Pace | I can move through the modules as quickly or as slowly as I need. | The lack of a shared lecture means there’s no sense of community or shared discovery with my classmates. | Efficient, but incredibly isolating. |
| Instant Feedback | My assignments are graded in seconds, which is amazing for quick revisions. | The AI grades based on keywords and structure, not the quality of the idea. It rewards writing like a robot. | Teaches you how to pass the AI’s test, not how to think critically. |
| “Real World” Skills | I am getting hands-on experience with Amazon’s AI tools, like Bedrocknytimes. | It feels like job training for one specific company (Amazon) rather than a broad education. | Potentially valuable for my resume, but feels like a trade-off with a real education. |
The biggest “pro” is the efficiency. I’m learning a lot of facts very quickly. But the biggest “con” is the loss of the human element. There is no Socratic dialogue, no passionate debate, no moment where a professor’s personal story makes a dry topic come alive. The “why” has been replaced with a very efficient “what.”
The 10 Questions Every Student MUST Ask
If your university announces a similar “AI partnership,” you need to be prepared. These are the questions my friends and I wish we had asked before this semester started.
Your AI Education Checklist:
Questions About Learning:
- What percentage of my grade will be determined by an AI versus a human professor?
- What is the process for appealing an AI-generated grade?
- Will the professor’s role be to teach, or to provide tech support for the AI platform?
- How will this model accommodate students with different learning styles who may not thrive with a text-based AI tutor?
Questions About Privacy:
5. What data is the AI collecting on my learning habits, questions, and performance?
6. Who owns my data? The university, or the tech partner (e.g., Amazon, OpenAI)?
7. Will my data be used to train future versions of the AI?
8. Can I opt out of this data collection?
Questions About the Future:
9. Is this program designed to improve education, or to reduce the cost of hiring human professors?
10. How will the university ensure that the curriculum is not overly influenced by the corporate goals of its tech partners?
If your university can’t provide clear, direct answers, it’s a major red flag that they haven’t fully considered the implications of what they’re building.
The Unspoken Cost: Losing the Human Connection
Last week, I was struggling with a complex marketing concept. I asked the Athena chatbot three times, and each time it gave me the same generic, textbook definition.
Frustrated, I went to Dr. Evans’ office hours. In ten minutes, he explained the concept using an analogy from his own career in the 90s, told a funny story about a campaign that failed, and drew a diagram on a whiteboard that made everything click.
That single, 10-minute human interaction was more valuable than the 30 hours I’ve spent with the AI tutor.
This is what’s being lost. The mentorship, the spontaneous discussions, the passionate debates, the very human connection that lies at the heart of real learning. The university is partnering with tech companies to identify the “AI skills needed in the California workforce,” but they seem to have forgotten that the most important skills—critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving—are best learned from other people, not from chatbots.latimes
Our Response: The Fight for Real Education
We are not taking this sitting down. A student movement is growing across the Cal State system.
- We’ve started a petition demanding a “human-in-the-loop” policy, requiring that a human professor approve all AI-generated grades.
- We are publicly questioning why the California community college system was able to secure AI tools from Google for over two million students at no cost, while Cal State is paying OpenAI $16.9 million for its ChatGPT Edu tool.nytimes
- We are demanding representation on the AI advisory board, which is currently dominated by executives from the tech companies that are profiting from this initiative.latimes
This isn’t about being anti-AI. This is about ensuring that AI is used as a tool to assist human professors, not as a replacement for them. It’s a fight for the soul of our university.
Conclusion: An Experiment With Our Future
I am a test subject in the largest AI education experiment in American history. This partnership between Cal State, Amazon, and OpenAI is being hailed as a model for the future of higher education.govtech
After 30 days, I can tell you that this future is incredibly efficient. It’s scalable. It’s probably very profitable for the tech companies involved. But it’s also sterile, isolating, and devoid of the inspirational spark that only a great human teacher can provide.
Before your university signs a similar deal, you and your parents need to ask the hard questions. Because once the professors become “facilitators” and the curriculum is designed in a corporate boardroom, it’s a long road back to a real education. And our future is too important to be a beta test.
