HP education ambassador Brett Salakas piqued the interest of a crowd of educators on Thursday when he walked onto a stage with a carton of eggs, a litre of milk, butter, a bowl, a wooden spoon and a packet of Betty Crocker cake mix.
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Rod Serling’s classic 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, “The Obsolete Man,” offers a timeless meditation on authoritarianism, conformity, and the erasure of humanity. In it, a quiet librarian, Romney Wordsworth (played by Burgess Meredith), is deemed “obsolete” by a dystopian state for believing in books and God—symbols of individual thought and spiritual meaning. Condemned by a totalitarian chancellor and scheduled for execution, Wordsworth calmly exposes the cruelty and contradictions of the regime, ultimately reclaiming his dignity by refusing to bow to tyranny.
Over 60 years later, “The Obsolete Man” feels less like fiction and more like a documentary. The Trump era, supercharged by the rise of artificial intelligence and a war on truth, has brought Serling’s chilling parable into sharper focus.
President Donald Trump’s presidency—and his ongoing influence—has been marked by a deep antagonism toward democratic institutions, intellectual life, and perceived “elites.” Journalists were labeled “enemies of the people.” Scientists and educators were dismissed or silenced. Books were banned in schools and libraries, and curricula were stripped of “controversial” topics like systemic racism or gender identity.
Like the chancellor in The Obsolete Man, Trump and his allies seek not just to discredit dissenters but to erase their very legitimacy. In this worldview, librarians, teachers, and independent thinkers are expendable. What matters is loyalty to the regime, conformity to its ideology, and performance of power.
Wordsworth’s crime—being a librarian and a believer—is mirrored in real-life purges of professionals deemed out of step with a hardline political agenda. Public educators and college faculty who challenge reactionary narratives have been targeted by state legislatures, right-wing activists, and billionaire-backed think tanks. In higher education, departments of the humanities are being defunded or eliminated entirely. Faculty governance is undermined. The university, once a space for critical inquiry, is increasingly treated as an instrument for ideological control—or as a business to be stripped for parts.
While authoritarianism silences the human spirit, artificial intelligence threatens to replace it. AI tools, now embedded in everything from hiring algorithms to classroom assessments, are reshaping how knowledge is produced, disseminated, and controlled. In the rush to adopt these technologies, questions about ethics, bias, and human purpose are often sidelined.
AI systems do not “believe” in anything. They do not feel awe, doubt, or moral anguish. They calculate, replicate, and optimize. In the hands of authoritarian regimes or profit-driven institutions, AI becomes a tool not of liberation, but of surveillance, censorship, and disposability. Workers are replaced. Students are reduced to data points. Librarians—like Wordsworth—are no longer needed in a world where books are digitized and curated by opaque algorithms.
This is not merely a future problem. It’s here. Algorithms already determine who gets hired, who receives financial aid, and which students are flagged as “at risk.” Predictive policing, automated grading, and AI-generated textbooks are not the stuff of science fiction. They are reality. And those who question their fairness or legitimacy risk being labeled as backwards, inefficient—obsolete.
At the heart of “The Obsolete Man” is a question about value: Who decides what is worth keeping? In Trump’s America and in the AI-driven economy, people are judged by their utility to the system. If you’re not producing profit, performing loyalty, or conforming to power, you can be cast aside.
This is especially true for the working class, contingent academics, and the so-called “educated underclass”—a growing population of debt-laden degree holders trapped in precarious jobs or no jobs at all. Their degrees are now questioned, their labor devalued, and their futures uncertain. They are told that if they can’t “pivot” or “reskill” for the next technological shift, they too may be obsolete.
The echoes of The Twilight Zone are deafening.
Yet, as Wordsworth demonstrates in his final moments, resistance is possible. Dignity lies in refusing to surrender the soul to the machine—or the regime. In his quiet defiance, Wordsworth forces the chancellor to confront his own cowardice, exposing the hollow cruelty of the system.
In our time, that resistance takes many forms: educators who continue to teach truth despite political pressure; librarians who fight book bans; whistleblowers who challenge surveillance technologies; and students who organize for justice. These acts of courage and conscience remind us that obsolescence is not a matter of utility—it’s a judgment imposed by those in power, and it can be rejected.
Rod Serling ended his episode with a reminder: “Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man—that state is obsolete.”
The question now is whether we will heed the warning. In an age where authoritarianism and AI threaten to render us all obsolete, will we remember what it means to be human?
The Higher Education Inquirer welcomes responses and reflections on how pop culture can illuminate our present crises. Contact us with your thoughts or your own essay proposals.
Most universities dream of a future that embraces digital assessment and exams, but the journey to get there is complex and not universally supported.
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New AI Research Assistant available in library search
April 25th, 2025. University of Manitoba.
UManitoba recently announced the launch of their new AI Research Assistant (beta), a GenAI tool to help with library searches and to help gather initial insights on research topics. Functions include providing summarized responses to research questions, recommending relevant publications from the libraries’ collections, and suggesting additional question prompts to expand the research topic.
Dion-Viens, Daphnée. Le Journal de Montréal. April 24th, 2025.
“Québec a annoncé l’automne dernier la création d’une instance de concertation sur l’intelligence artificielle en enseignement supérieur, dont les travaux ont débuté en octobre. Le bilan des travaux devait être présenté en avril, mais cet échéancier a été repoussé à la fin de l’été. Un cadre de référence pour l’intégration de l’IA dans les cégeps et les universités devrait être présenté à la rentrée. La Fédération nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN) déplore ce report. Le temps presse puisque plusieurs établissements attendent ces lignes directrices pour agir. »
Universities have a chance to lead in shaping AI’s future
Kaya-Kasikci, S. et al. University World News. April 23th, 2025.
The authors of a recent academic analysis of national AI policies share their thoughts about how the diverse AI policy approaches and perspectives around the world might impact the future of post-secondary education.
Are You Ready for the AI University?
Latham, S. The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 8th. 2025.
“What’s happening in higher education today has a name: creative destruction. The economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term in 1942 to describe how innovation can transform industries. That typically happens when an industry has both a dysfunctional cost structure and a declining value proposition. Both are true of higher education.“
AI is unable to outpace higher education
Lumina Foundation. April 29th, 2025.
“Leaders from academia, economic development, and industry discuss how universities and colleges are advancing research and equipping students with the skills to lead in an AI-powered future. From addressing social inequities to preparing cities for the economy of the future, the conversation highlights the transformative potential of AI when nurtured within higher education, and the tradeoffs that must be made in an education system wired for the past.“
Gen Z says AI has made their college degrees irrelevant
Torres, R. April 29th, 2025. Higher Ed Dive.
“The ongoing push to deemphasize college degree requirements in job postings has led half of Gen Z job seekers to view their degrees as a waste of time and money”, according to a recent Indeed report that surveyed 772 US adulted workers and job seekers with an associate’s degree or higher.
Labor Market Disruption and Policy Readiness in the AI Era
McGrath, E. and Burris, M. The Century Foundation. April 29th, 2025.
Policy recommendations to prepare current and future workforce for AI.
Here is how experiential learning can save colleges from AI
McKeen, S. University Business. April 30th, 2025.
“If knowledge is now universally accessible, what remains of higher education’s value? (…) The traditional college lecture is obsolete. Why should students pay thousands in tuition to sit in a lecture hall when AI can summarize complex theories in seconds? The world no longer rewards passive knowledge absorption. Employers want graduates who can think critically, collaborate effectively, and apply knowledge in complex, unpredictable environments. Experiential learning isn’t just an educational trend— it’s a survival strategy.“
Is AI Enhancing Education or Replacing It?
Shirky, C. The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 29th, 2025.
“The fact that AI might help students learn is no guarantee it will help them learn. […] The teacher can advance learning only by influencing the student to learn.Faced with generative AI in our classrooms, the obvious response for us is to influence students to adopt the helpful uses of AI while persuading them to avoid the harmful ones. Our problem is that we don’t know how to do that.“
Teaching Writing in the Age of AI
Mintz, S. Inside Higher Ed. May 2nd, 2025.
« As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of generating polished, grammatically correct text that meets academic standards, educators face a critical challenge: How can we teach students to write authentically and effectively? » This author talks about the challenges of teaching writing in the AI era, and provide tips on how to move beyond these challenges.
3 Laws for Curriculum Design in an AI Age
Chaudhuri, A. and Trainor, J. Inside Higher Ed. April 30th, 2025.
The authors share « a framework for thinking about how to address AI technology in the curriculum at all levels, from the individual classroom to degree-level road maps, from general education through graduate courses. »
When GenAI resets the assessment baseline
Jones, C. Times Higher Education. April 29th, 2025.
A visiting lecturer at Regent’s University London, Kingston University and more shares how he reassessed his assignment to mitigate students using AI to do all the work for them. His initial plan was to have ChatGPT create a « baseline » output against which he could mark his students assignments, but he was surprised to realize that the ouptut was better than most undergraduate students would have delivered. He had to review his approach, and shares his strategy in this article.
AI Summary ‘trashed author’s work’ and took weeks to be corrected
Ross, J. Times Higher Education. April 24th, 2025.
AI research summaries ‘exaggerate findings’, study warns
Ross, J. Times Higher Education. April 16th, 2025.
« Dutch and British researchers have found that AI summaries of scientific papers are much more likely than the original authors or expert reviewers to ‘overgeneralise’ he results. (…) AI summaries – purportedly designed to help spread scientific knowledge by rephrasing it in ‘easily understandable language’ – tend to ignore ‘uncertainties, limitations and nuances’ in the research by ‘omitting qualifiers’ and ‘oversimplifying’ the text. Read the academic paper here.
Using peer networks to integrate AI literacy into liberal arts
McMurtrie, B. The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 24th, 2025.
Read how an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio is teaching students about effective AI use.
Schroeder, R. April 30th, 2025. Inside Higher Ed.
« As we approach May, alarm bells are ringing for all colleges and universities to ensure that AI literacy programs have been completed by learners who plan to enter the job market this year and in the future. »
The University of Sydney’s (USyd) new artificial intelligence (AI) learning and assessment policy is commonsense for both teachers and students, head of the uni’s AI group has said.
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The university arguably leading the sector in its use of artificial intelligence (AI) in assessment tasks has received criticism from some students who have complained they lost marks for not using AI in a test.
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Let’s be real — online teaching isn’t about dumping lecture notes into a learning system and calling it a day. If we want students to actually engage, grow and retain what we teach, we’ve got to meet them where they are with tools and strategies that turn passive screens into powerful learning spaces.
This is at the heart of our Spring 2025 Empowered Educator recorded webinar session, “Interactive Learning Redefined With A.I.”
During our session, we explored tools and mindsets that make all the difference, whether you’re just starting as an educator or looking to breathe new life into your virtual classroom.
We’re teaching in an era where attention spans are short, expectations are high and personalization is the norm. Students don’t just want to listen. They want to participate, problem-solve and feel seen. The combination of interactive learning and Generative AI (GenAI) makes this not only possible, but sustainable.
Forget static slides. The key is giving students something to do, not just something to watch. Some of the most effective, real-time strategies listed in the CID Quick Tip Guide were explored during our session:
This kind of learning keeps things dynamic, allows for quick feedback and, best of all, shows students you’re in it with them.
Now, here’s where we level up. AI isn’t just about automation — it’s about tailoring the learning journey to meet each student where they are. In our session, we explored ways to:
It’s like having a digital co-teacher who’s always ready to personalize.
We also dove into case studies and data from real classrooms where these approaches led to:
When students feel included and in control of their learning, outcomes naturally improve.
In the end, this isn’t just about tools or tech. It’s about creating experiences where students feel challenged, supported and seen.
Watching this session on transforming student engagement in the online classroom will more than inspire you. You’ll learn how to:
Let’s create classrooms that aren’t just digital — but dynamic.
Written by Dr. Clevester Moten, Business Instructor at Jackson College and James Bender, Adjunct Instructor at Jackson College.
Dr. Clevester Moten is a transformative educator, scholar and thought leader whose research and work focus on equity, leadership and systemic reform. With more than 20 years of leadership spanning public, private and nonprofit sectors, he specializes in fostering collaboration and addressing societal challenges. Dr. Moten holds advanced degrees in public policy and business administration.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly integrated into the world of business, with higher education being no exception. According to recent Cengage research, 92% of higher ed instructors and 83% of students say it’s important to include AI literacy in courses, partly because 84% of students believe AI skills proficiency is important for future employment.
AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Liner, Gemini and other similar platforms, are becoming influential in reinforcing student learning. They can help contribute to the generation of ideas, provide unique perspectives and facilitate deeper engagement with course resources. For example, students can use AI to enhance discussions, discover helpful images and content and improve their critical thinking skills. However, it’s necessary to consider AI integration thoughtfully and responsibly to make the most of its benefits while abating potential barriers.
One of the substantial benefits of integrating AI into the classroom is its capability to foster critical thinking. By offering students various viewpoints on a topic, AI encourages them to explore, compare and contrast different arguments. This process not only deepens their understanding but also sharpens their analytical skills. Additionally, AI can generate prompts that guide students to ask more reflective, intuitive and probing questions, further increasing scholarly interest in a topic.
Even with its benefits, the ascent of AI in academia has raised concerns about academic integrity. When it comes to the risks and ethics of AI, 82% of instructors Cengage surveyed are concerned about academic integrity (cheating, plagiarism). To tackle these concerns, educators must determine well-defined instructions on ethical AI use, emphasizing the importance of originality and proper citation of AI generated content. This methodology ensures that students explore AI responsibly, maintaining integrity in their academic efforts.
AI’s malleability makes it a valuable tool for accommodating various styles of learning. Visual learners can benefit from AI-generated illustrations and graphs, auditory learners from audio abstracts and kinesthetic learners from interactive engagement. By tailoring learning to these diverse needs, AI can create a more stimulating learning environment, enhancing intellectual capacity and student persistence.
Looking ahead, institutions should aspire to develop a viable AI-integrated curriculum that progresses with technological improvements. Continuous enhancement and innovation are essential, as is the creation of AI literacy programs for both students and faculty. Such initiatives will guarantee long-term expertise and certainty in leveraging AI effectively, preparing the academic world for a future where AI plays an integral role in education and the business world.
The integration of AI into higher education proposes a transformative opportunity to enrich synchronous and asynchronous discussions, while cultivating critical thinking. By embracing AI responsibly and ethically, educators can equip students with the skills and strategies to engage more meaningfully with course content, ensuring they are well prepared in an increasingly digital environment.
Written by Dr. Neisa Jenkins, Professor at DeVry University
We recently shared three ways faculty are using generative AI (GenAI) to help them handle the more administrative aspects of their roles — gleaned from ongoing research that culminates in our annual Faces of Faculty report. This comprehensive report explores the professional landscape, challenges, and opportunities facing today’s higher education faculty. Over the past few years, we’ve learned that GenAI has enjoyed popularity among early adopting educators as: a tool for jumpstarting ideas and conversations with students; to help with differentiation of instruction for different learning levels and styles; and a tool for automating feedback. We’ve also learned that around half of instructors now hold a positive view of GenAI, up from just 28% in 2023, and we expect that the number is continuing to rise as more educators experiment with the tech.
What are some other ways in which higher education faculty are using AI to lighten their professional loads? Here are two more use-cases we learned about:
Since GenAI arrived on the higher education scene in a meaningful way, faculty have been understandably frustrated by the ways in which students can use it to cheat and plagiarize the work of others. In fact, 82% of faculty in a recent report expressed concern about academic integrity and AI. An adjunct in Washington told us, “When students rely on AI instead of learning to write and study, they learn less. This is like giving kids a calculator before they know what it even means to add and subtract…”
Yet, we’re hearing from educators that a “fight fire with fire” approach can be really effective at combating plagiarism and cheating. Importantly, this involves having honest conversations with students about academic integrity and the value of original work and critical thinking. Many faculty are spending time explaining to students that while GenAI tools are often appealing as a quick fix, using them to cheat and plagiarize will only harm their chances of academic success. Others are going beyond theory and integrating AI tools into their lessons; effectively asking students to use AI in an integral way, without sacrificing originality.
Some are taking it a step further, though, and are using AI to stay a step ahead of the cheaters by thinking as they do. Faculty are often cued into the possibility of plagiarism by virtue of essays and responses that contain verbatim key terms from prompt phrases, or by stilted and inauthentic word choice and syntax. Running a page of text through an AI detection tool can quickly flag which sentences, concepts or phrases have been “lifted” straight out of ChatGPT or other GenAI platforms. One article suggests that educators subtly obtain a baseline sample of each student’s authentic writing style and capabilities at the start of the term, so that any potential plagiarism becomes far more obvious.
A faculty member at Purdue summarized the nature of the plagiarism challenge in a blog post. “I realized that 80-90% of the assignment I had created for my courses could now be readily answered by AI…We are now thinking about how we can make our courses both AI-amplified and AI-resilient.”
“Judicious use of AI tools will make many tasks less burdensome. Good AI results depend on detailed and well-crafted prompts.” – Instructor, North Carolina
In 2023, over half (58%) of instructors reported wanting to use AI for administrative tasks. As the overall popularity of GenAI has risen among educators, we expect that more and more are also now using GenAI tools to lessen their admin burden. What does this look like, and how can faculty use AI to make professional life easier on the administrative side of things?
A few AI-powered tasks we heard about from survey respondents include:
AI calendar features can help educators optimize their workday by scheduling time blocks that are based on patterns and urgency. It can also deploy automated responses to routine student queries based on certain words and phrases. This simple use-case allows educators to find better work-life balance, avoid scheduling conflicts, and divide their time and attention fairly among the students and situations that most require it.
Asking AI to write a recommendation, resume or cover letter borders on the unethical, but using AI to review these documents and suggest enhancements seems like a smart use of time and technology, and one that can benefit students while saving educators time.
While its results aren’t always perfect, GenAI pulls from a virtually infinite pool of resources to generate lists and recommendations for users. So, no matter how seasoned or well-read an educator may be, AI can offer a helpful starting point for suggesting comprehensive resources and reading material that can benefit students.
Check out our part 1 article: “Three Ways Faculty Are Using AI to Lighten Their Professional Load.“ It highlights three practical ways instructors are putting AI to work — helping them save time, streamline tasks and refocus on what matters most.
