If AI can do your classwork, why go to college?

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What’s the point of college if no one’s actually doing the work? It’s not a rhetorical question. In the age of AI, it's incredibly easy for students to offload their assignments. AI tools can write essays, make study guides, and even complete whole assignments. So what is the point of higher education? In today’s episode, Sean speaks with journalist James Walsh about his recent article, "Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College." The two discuss how students are using AI to finish their assignments, how colleges are (and aren’t) responding to these challenges, and whether you can learn to think when something else does the thinking for you. Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: James Walsh, features writer for New York magazine's Intelligencer. Read James’s article: "Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College." Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start.
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0:23.7	Download today.
0:26.5	Hey, this is Peter Kafka.
0:28.0	I'm the host of channels, a show about what happens when media and tech collide.
0:32.6	And this week I'm talking to Emily Sunberg, whose Feed-Me newsletter is a thriving one-person business with
0:38.9	mega fans and lots of subscribers. This is a story about a media company that's taking off.
0:45.1	A very wise person once told me, once you turn certain levers on, you can't turn them back off.
0:50.7	And I don't need to right now. Like, everything's working. I don't need to give more of my personal life. That's this week on channels wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
1:00.6	What's the point of college if no one's actually doing the work? It's not a rhetorical question.
1:07.7	More and more students are not doing the work. They're offloading their essays,
1:13.3	their homework, even their exams to AI. Tools like chat GPT, Claude, co-pilot, they're not just
1:20.8	study aids anymore. They're doing everything. We are living in a cheating utopia. And professors know this. They see it. It's becoming more common, but they can't always prove it.
1:34.3	And more often than not, they're too burned out or unsupported to do anything about it.
1:39.3	So, what are we doing here? What is higher education at this point?
1:47.8	I'm Sean Elling, and this is the gray area.
1:56.0	My guest today is James Walsh.
	...

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