In his annual address to the faculty senate Sept. 17, President Joseph E. Aoun spoke on the future of learning and artificial intelligence, or AI, emphasizing how AI has prompted the university to redesign its curriculum and research to embrace the technology as a learning “companion” rather than a “substitute.”
Since then, Northeastern has created a new webpage dedicated exclusively to its AI programs, which encourages prospective and current students to “Prepare to thrive in an AI-powered world” through a bachelor’s or master’s of computer science with an AI concentration or graduate certifications in artificial intelligence applications.
While Northeastern’s administration proudly advertises itself as a trailblazer in the AI industry, pushing the technology’s use in classrooms and claiming to prepare students for jobs in the age of AI, professors are setting parameters around integration.
“This semester, you can use LLMs in class, but you have to cite them and say why,” said Ekam Bhatia, a second-year computer science and mathematics combined major. “For my C++ class, you have to write a little bit about how it helped you and if you could have done the assignment without it.”
On March 31, Northeastern updated its Policy Resources page to include Policy 125: “Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems.” The policy communicates the scope and purpose of appropriate student AI usage, most notably authorizing the use of large language models, or LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta AI, in the classroom if permitted by professors.
Bhatia said many of his computer science professors remind students that LLMs are a tool to aid learning, not a replacement for it. “You don’t need [AI] all the time, it’s just not bad as an option. If your AI gives you a wrong answer, that’s on you. Make sure your answers are right,” Bhatia said.
Justin Wang, an assistant teaching professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, said he feels AI can be a useful tool to support students’ learning once they’ve grasped the basics of a topic.
“I am a firm believer in that you need to have the foundational knowledge about the topic or concept before you can fully harness the power of artificial intelligence,” Wang said.“When I use AI to learn things outside my realm of expertise, to gather basic information, it’s useful. But I just don’t believe in using AI to do the homework. Homework is where the learning happens.”
Wang emphasized the danger of becoming reliant on AI for assignments, especially in courses that are sequential in nature.
“When you’re not thinking anymore, you don’t even know how to compose a good question,” he said. “Northeastern’s class offerings are structured. The content of knowledge is building on top of each other. If you give your assignments to ChatGPT, it’s going to become a downward spiral every time you run into an issue.”
To combat this spiral, Wang has developed his own classroom AI bot to help his students summarize their needs. The bot, which is still in beta testing and available in a public Discord channel, encourages students to collaborate and ask constructive questions. It has limits on the kinds of questions students may ask, providing a quick “no” if they ask it to do an assignment for them. It is also programmed using the textbook’s set parameters, avoiding exposure to materials more advanced than the current course assignment.
“I want to make sure students are able to get the same resources as other people that may be in-person learning,” Wang said. “At the end of the day, you need to continuously think. Especially in cybersecurity, this is one of those things where we can’t be complacent because when we become complacent in our understanding and we stop improving ourselves, that’s where we decline.”
Some students say they are frustrated with the university’s newfound openness for AI usage.
“I think Northeastern’s navigation of [AI] is reckless. It’s making us worse learners, it’s making us worse writers, it’s making us worse thinkers. I didn’t come here to be taught by a robot,” said Valentina Moghaddam, a fourth-year criminal justice and psychology combined major.
Although perspectives vary between community members on AI usage in academic and creative spaces, students’ and teachers’ approaches to these tools will shape future policy and practice at Northeastern.
“I’ve always treated artificial intelligence as a supplement of some kind of tool where it’s not going to be the singular source. Frankly, it will never [always] be right. It’s okay to use it, but you have to evaluate it. You have to second-guess the results it’s giving you,” Wang said.
