Human intelligence is in a perpetual state of metamorphosis. Our minds are constantly creating these inventions manifesting in physical objects, in art and in words both written and spoken, produced by thousands of years of human thought.
Then comes AI.
Artificial intelligence has existed for decades, and it’s solidified itself as one of humanity’s current metamorphic projects. Suddenly, human thought becomes replicable, a set of numbers, a computer code. Generative AI has further blurred the lines between human and artificial learning, allowing everyday people to not only use but train this experimental mind.
USC is one of many universities partnered with OpenAI to give students and staff access to generative AI programs such as ChatGPT Edu, a university-specific version of the program. According to The Daily Gamecock, GPT-5, GPT-4, GPT-4o mini and DALL-E image generator are all included in the university's $1.5 million deal, which launched Aug. 16.
This newfound partnership with OpenAI sparks the university’s own state of metamorphosis. With AI steadily creeping into classroom curriculum, it’s time to question the university’s hospitality. Does AI have a home in academia? And if it does, what doors stay open and what doors stay locked?
First, it’s important to distinguish between typical AI and generative AI. Marcia Purday, former co-chair of the College of Information and Communications’ AI initiative and current professor at USC, likens both to an assistant chef. The difference lies in the product, what that assistant actually creates with the ingredients someone else gives.
“You tell them to cook a specific dish, let's say spaghetti. So the assistant can do that and does it every time perfectly. That's artificial intelligence," Purday explained. "Generative AI is where you say okay, here are the ingredients and everything that you need. Assistant, go cook something. And the assistant comes up with a brand-new dish that's never existed before."
Programs like ChatGPT generate a unique product with the resources humans provide it. Previously, students used ChatGPT to help with difficult homework questions, create study tools for an upcoming exam and even write specific parts of their essays, all without approval from professors or the university. Now, with ChatGPT Edu, students and staff are encouraged to openly use AI as a tool in the classroom.
Some professors are embracing AI. For Forest Agostinelli, an assistant professor at USC, exploring AI’s role in education is vital to fully understanding it.
“I think it’s exciting because we’re not sure the role OpenAI is going to play in education,” Agostinelli explained. “AI, and these large language models in general, are not going away, so I think it’s a good thing we get to experiment with it and see how it can enhance learning."
Agostinelli teaches a lower-level course for students just starting to learn how to code called "AI for All". He hopes the class familiarizes his students with code that works with AI and includes assignments where students create code using ChatGPT.
“They’re explicitly encouraged to use it,” Agostinelli said. “I think it’s a great opportunity because most people aren’t from computer science in that class, and to have the ability to work with AI and seeing it working or not working in real time and being able to modify it so it does work I think is a vital skill."
AI has deep roots in computer science, but its influence is expanding into other fields of education as it becomes more accessible. Rachael Davis, a junior at USC who studies English, noticed the different reactions to AI based on the professor’s department.
“I have a lot of friends who are STEM majors, and their classes are approaching it very differently, not really talking about it as much," Davis said.
She’s had lengthy discussions in class about AI, and most of them ended with a general consensus: the humanities don’t need it.
Evren Özselçuk, an assistant professor from the Department of English, shared this sentiment. Özselçuk teaches a collection of English and Film Studies courses at USC, and she emphasizes the importance of human thought when students are reading, watching and analyzing her material.
“I mean, for a very long time now in universities, the product has become more valued – the essay, the assignment, the project,” Özselçuk said. “But I think, in humanities, we need to sort of emphasize that it's not so much the product that matters, but the process of how you get to the product."
For Özselçuk, the uncertainty and discovery that’s paired with human thought is lost with AI.
“ What happens with AI is we're basically outsourcing this process to something outside of our brains, outside of our bodies,” Özselçuk explained. “And when it's doing the work, we're not doing the work, which means we're not really flexing those muscles that we need to become good thinkers and good writers."
Özselçuk is one of many professors who are implementing different techniques to dissuade students from using AI. Özselçuk completely banned AI in her classroom, and she’s shifted to more low-stakes, in-class writing. Students are also required to attend office hours and discuss their papers before they’re due. She hopes her students will learn to be less intimidated by writing so they rely less on AI.
“I want to preserve the classroom as a different space where we continue to do a different kind of thinking," Özselçuk said.
While some believe AI impedes human thought, others see AI as a tool, one that bolsters human insight. James Kravchuck, a sophomore at USC, frequently uses AI for problem-solving. ChatGPT helped him make practice problems for his Calculus II class, fix a 3D printer and walk through an issue with his computer software.
“It's almost like you're talking to a person where they understand what you're asking and then give a very human response," Kravchuck said. AI gives him carefully curated feedback using a computerized human psyche, something he might not have found on the Internet.
Purday also sees AI as a creative starting point for students.
"What I have seen happen is that the students who are copywriters who use it as a tool become even stronger copywriters,” Purday said. “So they're still taking their knowledge, they're still using their writing and their skills, but it just helps them. It pushes them sometimes to the next level, especially if they hit a roadblock."
Purday is one of many professors who use AI as a brainstorming tool, one meant to push students in the right direction. But, as Agostinelli said, AI’s role in education is still an ongoing experiment. AI is still learning alongside human beings, so it’s bound to get some things wrong. But while AI’s replicated mind is still growing, Purday insists its imperfection doesn’t dismiss its value. She likens AI to a calculator, a tool we didn’t always have but rely heavily on today.
“Students still need to know how to be able to do those functions in order to understand how to use the calculator,” Purday explained. “My students still have to have the skills, the strategic skills, the analytical skills, to make sure that they know that what's being produced is good work."
But universities aren’t simply giving students access to the next groundbreaking academic invention; it’s also preparing students for an increasingly particular job market. With the rise in generative AI, jobs across the board are starting to look for innovative new hires.
Purday participated in a two-day conference USC held about the role of AI in the workplace, and businesses were open about preferring candidates familiar with AI technologies.
“They are saying that if students don’t know how to ethically use AI, they will not be hiring them,” Purday said. “So students have got to have those skills to know how to ethically use generative AI."
Davis on the other hand, doesn’t see an immediate problem, but acknowledges AI’s influence is a ticking time bomb.
“I think you could still get by for a little while longer without needing it,” Davis said. “But it’s going to become kind of this thing that everyone is going to assume you use."
When it comes to AI, there’s a lot to keep an eye on – false information, plagiarism, its future in classrooms and cubicles – but for many skeptics, the biggest issue lies in personal data. According to OpenAI’s website, ChatGPT and other generative AI systems use collected data from users and outside sources to train its own systems. But the university claims ChatGPT Edu is different.
“The data itself that students, faculty, staff put into ChatGPT and OpenAI will not be used to train any of OpenAI’s models,” USC spokesperson Collyn Taylor wrote in a statement. “Furthermore, USC cannot see anything that users put into ChatGPT. The only time those searches and prompts would be able to be seen would be in the event those were subpoenaed in a legal proceeding.”
Despite USC’s assurance that personal data will be protected, staff and students remain skeptical. With different social media platforms notoriously experiencing major data breaches, it’s hard for some to ignore the potential flaws in large online programs.
Agostinelli tends to proceed with caution, only putting data and information he’s comfortable with sharing in OpenAI programs.
“I think we’ve seen enough examples of people like Facebook doing weird things with your data,” Agostinelli said. "I only put data in there that I’m comfortable with OpenAI knowing and using."
Not everyone is doubtful; Purday still has faith in USC’s privacy contract with OpenAI.
“I do trust it, because OpenAI has got these enterprise contracts that they have secured with other large organizations, and that's to protect the organization's data," Purday explained. "So it's not training the AI that's open to everyone out on the internet, which is very different."
With every new manifested thought, with every step forward, humans have changed how we think and how we learn. AI is gearing up to be the next stage of our lives, one with roots rapidly spreading deeper.
“The industrial age changed the economy,” Purday said. “The internet changed the economy. Both of those things were kind of slow. It took years for them to come about. With AI, we're seeing it very dramatically change the way that we work and the way that we live."
