--- title: "University Leadership Suggest Using AI to Replace Striking Grad Students" description: "The Daily Beast reports that Boston University suggested its professors should use AI to replace the work of striking graduate students." date: "2024-03-29" modified: "2024-03-29" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/university-ai-replace-grad-students" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "automation" - "education" - "the digest" --- # University Leadership Suggest Using AI to Replace Striking Grad Students ![The Daily Beast reports that Boston University suggested its professors should use AI to replace the work of striking graduate students.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Big Brains *The Daily Beast* [reports that]() a dean at Boston University suggested using generative AI to replace the work of striking graduate students. The head-scratching proposition was made in a Wednesday email to university faculty and was one of several suggestions regarding how to "manage course discussion sections and labs" impacted by the Boston University Graduate Worker Union's (BUGWU) ongoing protests, according to the *Beast*. It was sent by Stan Sclaroff, who serves as the university's Dean of Arts & Sciences. In addition to some reportedly very normal recommendations for more effectively [managing workloads]() without the help of their grad students, Sclaroff inexplicably decided to throw in a few more "creative ways in which, we have heard, some faculty are adapting their course formats and using technology to serve their students." Among those suggestions? Per the *Beast*, the recommendation that professors "engage generative AI tools to give feedback or facilitate 'discussion' on readings or assignments." Generative AI tools have undeniably made [big waves]() in the world of academia. The "let's replace protesting graduate employees with AI scabs" idea, though, is certainly a new one. https://twitter.com/gradworkersofBU/status/1773393806152348085 ## Demoralizing The BUGWU's strike, [which began on March 20](), is the latest in a [years-long]() [string]() [of grad student]() [protests]() around the country, as student workers argue that the oft-meager stipends they receive in exchange for their work at the university pale in comparison to American higher education's skyrocketing yearly tuition costs. This appears to be the first time, though, that a university was caught mulling whether automation might be a sound means of supplanting striking employees and students. Which, considering the complex work that grad students do in addition to the flaws that still riddle AI-powered chatbots, it wouldn't be. An unnamed faculty member who spoke to the *Beast* noted their surprise at the wild AI recommendation, given that the university has mostly discussed automated tools like ChatGPT when chewing over how to "prevent our students from irresponsibly using generative AI in class and assigned work." "For some bewildering reason, they decided to throw in an extremely non-conventional and ultimately self-damaging suggestion that we just use ChatGPT to do the work," the anonymous faculty member told the *Beast*. "It's honestly pretty shocking." The faculty member also said the suggestion that educators could be replaced with automation was "demoralizing, for sure." "You have critical, interesting, and accomplished professors," they told the *Beast*, "who are, like me, baffled by this belief that you can just deliver a quality, higher education experience through the punch of a button." **More on AI and universities:**[ *College Students Basically Don’t Know How to Read Anymore*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()