Northwestern students and professors navigate confusion, opportunity with generative AI

Illustration by Clare Kirwan

Across the University, departments and individual professors generally have broad discretion to implement their own AI policies.

Jenny Jang, Reporter

May 20, 2025

Although artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT have become a staple in many Northwestern students’ study routines, students and faculty are simultaneously adapting to the implications of generative AI use for academic norms and student learning.

Across NU, departments and individual professors generally have broad discretion to implement their own AI policies. The University provides guidance to professors for considering the use of AI, and the Office of the Provost does not add specific restrictions.

At the same time, AI use in the classroom is rapidly evolving. ChatGPT launched in 2022, and 66% of worldwide college students reported using it in a mid-2024 study conducted by the Digital Education Council.

But for Weinberg freshman Aanya Sahu, generative AI has become a topic of uncertainty on campus.

Some instructors encourage limited use with proper citation while others ban it outright. With varying policies across departments and specific classes, Sahu said students are left to navigate an ambiguous set of expectations.

Sahu emphasized that the confusion extends beyond individual classes to broader academic norms.

“Personally, the rules regarding AI are confusing,” she said.

For others, including McCormick freshman Alice Ping, who studies electrical engineering, generative AI has become a valuable academic resource for them.

Ping said she primarily uses AI to gather preliminary research and walk through difficult problems. In her experience, STEM students often use AI for problem-solving assistance, while humanities majors tend to leverage it more for summarizing readings or generating writing ideas, she said.

“I think AI is going to be a huge asset for STEM majors in the future — not just as a STEM major but as a personalized tutor,” Ping said. “It’s already helping people learn faster and more independently, and I can see it becoming almost like a second brain for working through complex concepts.”

Despite the changing landscape of academic norms surrounding AI, both Ping and Sahu said that AI, when used thoughtfully, offers real benefits.

Sahu said she used to use AI frequently for tasks varying from drafting emails to brainstorming fundraising ideas. However, she has since made a conscious effort to decrease her usage to prevent becoming over-reliant on AI. Today, she mostly relies on AI for clarifying questions she gets wrong on assignments.

Professors, meanwhile, are also adapting to the changing generative AI landscape as they attempt to balance exploring new technology with preserving academic integrity.

Philosophy Prof. Megan Hyska said she allows her students to use generative AI for brainstorming, refining research questions, outlining writing assignments and checking for grammar and style. However, Hyska does not allow AI use for writing complete sentences, paragraphs or papers that students submit.

“I personally have not had an instance yet where it was clear to me that a student was using AI vastly past the bounds where I asked them to do so,” Hyska said.

Hyska said it can be challenging to enforce generative AI policies because she and her colleagues struggle to discern when students are violating them.

Other instructors, such as Spanish and Portuguese Prof. Alfonso Fierro, encourage creative experimentation. Fierro said he believes AI is something that should not only be tolerated, but used creatively.

One example stood out to Fierro: A student in his class used AI to transform a poem into a song, and then created two versions of the song, one in a rap and another in a rock style. Fierro said he found this project to be a “playful and interesting” way for his students to experiment with AI.

As students, departments and professors continue to fine-tune their approach to generative AI, they are still learning to adapt by experimenting with new assignments and approaches.

“AI is something that exists in this world, and younger generations are overusing (it) and should learn how to use (it) in critical ways that help them, but also allow them to do whatever it is that they’re doing,” Fierro said.

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