Professors Warn AI Could Weaken Student Critical Thinking Skills

As of November 11th, 2025, professors are sounding the alarm that students are increasingly outsourcing their thinking to artificial intelligence (AI), risking a significant decline in critical reasoning abilities. A recent study by Samsung found that while 88% of US middle and high school teachers believe AI will be important for their students' futures, 81% worry that overreliance on the technology could weaken critical-thinking skills.

This concern is echoed by researchers at Oxford University Press, who say AI is creating a generation of "faster but shallower" thinkers. Their study of 2,000 UK teenagers revealed that while 8 in 10 students use AI tools for schoolwork, many admit the tools make learning "too easy," leading to a loss of depth in their thinking.

Across universities, professors are warning that the problem runs even deeper, with students no longer just using AI, but "outsourcing thought itself." Anitia Lubbe, an associate professor at North-West University in South Africa, argues that higher education is "focusing only on policing" AI use instead of teaching students to critique it. Kimberley Hardcastle, a business professor at Northumbria University, warns this risks an "atrophy of epistemic vigilance," the ability to question, verify, and think independently.

However, billionaire investor Mark Cuban sees a different future, where students' ability to work with AI becomes their greatest competitive edge. Cuban believes that students who learn to collaborate with AI, rather than rely on it, will build stronger critical-thinking skills. He is backing this vision with a partnership to provide AI funding to US schools, seeing it as the next great literacy that every company will need.