Approach to generative AI
There are two tracks available in this class. You can use AI as a support tool, or you can be a conscientious objector and avoid it completely. You choose your track in the second class, and it is entirely possible to do this class without AI, with no adaptations.
Table of contents
The AI declaration
Fri Sep 11: In your AI declaration, tell me which track you are choosing and how you would be interested in using AI, if applicable.
From there, we will craft a generative AI policy together for those who choose to use it. “Use Claude for editing and research support” is so squishy that it is actually quite difficult to have a shared understanding of what it means, so we will do the work of pinning it down as a class.
For conscientious objectors: it is possible to do the class entirely without AI, with no adaptations.
Official MIT policy
This subject follows MIT’s B2 policy (Limited GenAI use): students may use generative AI to support learning, brainstorming, editing, debugging, or generating explanations, but may not use it to produce full or substantial assignment solutions. Assignments will clearly specify the stages or components that allow and disallow use, and “assistance” or “support” will be defined for each assignment.
My general approach
I will defend to the death the value of being able to think, read, and write without the help of a computer. I don’t think generative AI is the same as using a calculator. Even so, knowing multiplication tables — a form of rote memorization! — is still something we do because it helps us do more advanced thinking more quickly. We’re trying to do something more or less the same: to exercise the muscles that help us read and write.
Promises I will make to you
I will disclose my own AI use in class. For example, for this syllabus, I used Claude to list out all of the dates for the semester, help me plan when milestones should be due around the holidays, and look up best practices on assignment and assessment design (I asked Claude to collect PDF guides published by university teaching centers). After writing out everything without AI assistance into a LibreOffice document, I asked Claude Code to update the files in this course website repository.
I will never feed any of your writing into any generative AI system. Similarly, I will never put your writing through any “AI detection” software, nor will I ask you to download any spyware in order to create an “AI-free” writing environment.
I will never use generative AI to generate comments on your work. Everything you write will be read and commented on 100% without AI. No summarization, no “check this essay for major weaknesses.”
Your skill at using generative AI will not be evaluated in this class. Nor will it necessarily give you an advantage. It is entirely possible to do this entire class without AI and for it to be equally (if not more) rewarding.