By Caitlin Antonios
Before the arrival of modern technology, students studied ancient civilizations by reading books or viewing artifacts in a museum. Today, you can watch a 30-second video of 15th-century life in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, observing people shop in a market, voyage the cityâs canals, and pray in temples. What would have taken hours to explain in a lecture comes alive in secondsâall created entirely by artificial intelligence (AI).
This fascinating change is just one example of how AI is shaping higher education. Observing technologyâs role in how we convey knowledge and engage with the past, Associate Professor of Spanish, Latin American, Caribbean Literatures and Cultures MartĂn Vega created his fall 2025 course, The Aztecs in the Digital Age. Its syllabus looks at how digital media is used to share information about the Aztecsâand the drawbacks of representing Indigenous cultures this way.
âWhat do we gain and loseâas creators, artists, and humansâwhen we use AI and new digital platforms?â Vega asks. âIn class, we consider technological justice and linguistic justice as interlinked conceptsâhow Indigenous people, specifically in Mexico, use both new and old technologies to promote their languages and cultures and to create community among Indigenous language speakers.â
Just a few years ago, this class couldnât have been taught. The rapid advancement of generative AI and its wide embrace by individuals and globally influential companies like Google have transformed everyday life.
In higher education, faculty and students are navigating this new territory, while alums must exhibit agility in a professional world that is increasingly outsourcing skilled labor to AI. Articles appearing in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and others posit that AI has destroyed writing and changed college forever. But perhaps anxiety about the future can be lessened with a candid look at where we are now and where weâre going.
The Current Landscape: AI ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ”
It may seem like AI emerged out of nowhere, but the term âartificial intelligenceâ was first coined in a 1956 summer research proposal involving scientists and mathematicians from Dartmouth, Harvard, IBM Corporation, and Bell Telephone Laboratories. In the early â70s, Nobel Prize winner and âfather of AIâ Geoffrey Hinton completed a doctorate in artificial intelligence. Later, he co-invented the Boltzmann Machineâa mathematical model that could recognize patterns in raw data, which became the building block for modern AI.
Powered by OpenAI, ChatGPT launched in 2022âand has quickly become the most dominant generative AI tool. From finding the right words to text an ex-partner to analyzing spreadsheets, ChatGPT and critiques of its use now seems ubiquitous.
Some institutions, like the California State University system and Columbia University, now freely offer ChatGPT Education, an advanced chatbot tool that delivers âhuman-likeâ responses and tasks. While they argue that the AI tool levels the playing field for students who canât afford to pay for full access, other institutions, including Scripps College, have not yet created a formal policy governing its use. But that doesnât mean the College isnât thinking deeply about how AI influences learning, the job market, and conversations about ethics, copyright, and environmental impact.
At Scripps, each professor has formulated their own approach. In Vegaâs course, in addition to studying AI and other digital platforms, students could choose to create an image using AI or another medium.
âWe compared AI images to organic, human-made images,â Vega says. âThis helped us reflect on the values of organic human work, especially artwork, and appreciate itâeven more than anything AI could create.â
Some professors have taken a similar approach, asking students to use AI to build prompts that are then critiqued in class. For others, it has no place in their classroom.
âThere are instances when AI can be a useful tool to get started on a project, but I believe firmly that students must first learn how to do the task without AI,â says YouYoung Kang, associate professor of music and director of the Core Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities. Kang says she currently doesnât allow the use of AI in her classes.
For faculty, spotting non-assigned AI in student work is a combination of knowing a studentâs proficiency levelâa byproduct of Scrippsâ intimate class sizesâand understanding what AI cannot do. âAI has a particular style,â Assistant Professor in French and Francophone Studies ChloĂ© Vettier says. âThere is still something not human about it, and we can feel that in the submissions.â
Both Kang and Vettier note that it has not been a widespread issue among Scripps students.
âScripps students are very conscientious about AIâs ethical and environmental concerns,â Vettier continues.
Some professors have returned to collecting assignments in Blue Books, those thin powder-blue essay pamphlets with lined paper inside. While students may grumble at the archaic method of handwriting an exam in class, Vettier feels such analog assessment can help ensure students achieve learning goals without AI interference.
âAs AI evolves, we need to evolve and build those human skills as a measure to protect what we can do with our brains,â she saysâadding that Blue Books are âobjects students can keep and show to their grandkids.â
Carolina Keith â26, a French and science, technology, and society double major, is finalizing her senior thesis on copyright practices within generative art. She has used ChatGPT to create ideas for activities at her summer job at a childrenâs camp and as an aid with school assignments, but ultimately found it unhelpful.
âWhen studying abroad, I found a lot of people were using [ChatGPT]. Thereâs social pressure to use it,â Keith says. âPeople associate it with being an easier, faster way of doing something, but being a student is enjoyable when you get to research and learn. It takes that experience from you.â
Three years into ChatGPTâs debut, students and faculty are still deeply engaged in leveraging the benefits of AI while maintaining rigorous academic standards. Last year, Scripps faculty formed a committee, chaired by Vettier, to explore AI-related issues. Theyâve hosted guest speakers and workshops on a broad range of topics, including AIâs impact on teaching, sustainability, energy, ethics, and data governance and privacy.
âMost faculty agree on both the value and problems of this emerging technology,â says Kang. âWeâre having productive conversations about what is possible with AI, how to mitigate the problems with its use, and how to teach students to use AI in scholarship.â
Uncharted Waters: Scripps Alums in the AI field
AI isnât just affecting students. Employers making space for AI in their operations have left some job seekers scrambling. But Scripps alums working in AI didnât necessarily start thereâwhether utilizing College connections or building upon internships, many have found traction in a field that was only just emerging when they were newly minted graduates.
Sneha Deo â17 graduated from Scripps with a computer science degree and began working as a software engineer at a company she interned with during her time ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ”. She soon realized it wasnât her passion.
âI was much more interested in algorithm design, and through the advice of many around me, moved to Microsoft to become a product manager,â Deo says. âI spent a few years there doing algorithm development on the Windows updates team.â
On the heels of the AI explosion, she shifted into her current role as senior product manager for Microsoftâs Generative AI applications. Her job is two-fold: Research where the company can improve responsibility, fairness, and eliminate bias in products, and use that research alongside developing public policy to implement change.
âWhen I joined four years ago, it was prior to the advent of large language models and generative AI,â Deo continues. âHalfway through my time there, thatâs been the main focus from a product standpoint.â
For Deo, Scripps emboldened her to be an active architect of the world she wanted to live in. Leaning on her community of alums and mentors at each hinge of transition, she continues to apply skills from classes and extracurriculars to navigate post-Scripps life in AI.
âWe are in a time where itâs very uncertain who gets to decide who has the power to determine what the world is going to look like,â Deo says. âWith technology, the right outcome can only occur when many people feel empowered to participate. Resilience to work towards that vision is the most powerful tool you can have, especially in wild times like these.â
Drawing Power from the Scripps Experience
Deo is not alone in her journey. Cherish Molezion â17 and Rui-Jie Yew â21 both credit exposure to broad interdisciplinary study ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ” for their finesse maneuvering the AI ecosystem. âCore was really helpful in getting to explore, think outside the box, and lean into ideas that arenât necessarily a part of my day-to-day,â Molezion says.
A dual major in public policy analysis and French, Molezion studied abroad at a French law firm specializing in international law and arbitration while ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ”. She wrote her senior thesis on Franceâs social cohesion policies and immigrant access to education and, after graduating, returned to France to teach. Today, sheâs a senior technical program manager advancing safe AI policy and governance.
âI got my first job at Google because I spoke French,â says Molezion, who ultimately became the companyâs senior strategist in AI ethics, responsible AI, and innovation. âI was a legal specialist for trademark operations with a focus on Francophone markets and did a lot of analysis and risk management related to trademark infringements.â
Her next career pivot coincided with gaining a masterâs degree in public policy and administration from Northwestern University. She left Google but stayed within big tech, now overseeing the translation of impending regulations into product requirements. Here, the holistic perspectives fostered ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ” come through, informing how Molezion develops robust AI policies that account for safe use, security, fairness, assessment, and effect other ethical risks.
âWe have biases as humans that are reinforced within our technology. I make sure weâre combating that,â says Molezion. âAI is a result of training and algorithms; itâs not necessarily going to replace humans, but it can really help with productivity.â
Rui-Jie Yew â21 is currently a PhD candidate at Brown University, where her interdisciplinary research touches computer science, law, and policy. She chose Brown because of its AI policy research and opportunities to dive deeper into its technical and social implications.
âIâm really interested in game theoretic adversarial approaches to regulation,â Yew says. âSome of the courses and research experiences that I had ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ” are where that interest blossomed.â
Yew didnât always know she would pursue a doctorate. Her conversations with David Roselli, professor of ancient studies and classics, pushed her to consider entering a world that combined her love of computer science with the humanities.
âEvery time I went to do course registration, we would get into long conversations about society,â Yew says. âHe really encouraged me to think deeply about what it meant to work in technology.â
While ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ”, Yew completed a technology and policy internship at Google that bridged her interests. She interned in AI ethics at Sony and earned a masterâs degree in technology and policy at MIT before going to Brown. Like Molezion, Yew echoes how Core planted new seeds of thought that continue to pay dividends.
âOne of my first course readings [in Core] was closely related to the field Iâm in today,â she says. Regarding AI research, Yew feels âthereâs this sense that if there isnât math or code, itâs not a âscholarly contribution.â But being exposed to this kind of research so early on in my career really helped me to see value in using a social lens with technology.â
A Liberal Arts Education is Still Relevant
AI moving at lightning speed invokes a critical pause ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ”. Engaging in interdisciplinary study, vast areas of research, Core, and general education requirements help students stay relevant in a world changing faster than typical professional education can track.
Scrippsâ cultureâshaped by students, staff, faculty, alums, and familiesâis also crucial in fostering a desire to understand and improve the world. This is done, Vettier reminds, through prizing community, humanity, communication, truth, and innovationâvalues AI imitates but cannot embody.
âAt Scripps, we slow things down,â she says, noting how studentsâ confidence in tackling challenges produces professionals who thrive in completely new fields. âWe fight for values we share. Students ask big questions and understand the âwhy.ââ
With such a foundation, the rise of AI can be reframed not as a bad omen, but an opportunity. Roselli, Yewâs advisor who encouraged her to explore tech careers, does not intend to ban AI from his classroom because he does not yet see it as a threat.
âThis is a new tool. We donât know what will become of it,â Roselli says. âIf students can get answers to basic questions while working on a paper or a research project, we should not fret yetâas more complex undertakings remain at the heart of what a liberal arts education provides.â
The very reliance of a tool like ChatGPTâs on language exposes the balanced utility of AI and human-led learning. As language professors, both Roselli and Vettier acknowledge that an AI translator may help you order coffee in a foreign country, but itâs not going to replicate the experience of mastering a new tongue.
âThe language requirement ¶¶ÒőÊÓÆ” is so valuable because it expands the mind,â Vettier says. âThereâs a reason in diplomacy that human translators, not AI, are still being used.â
âI find that there are parts of me that exist more prominently in languages other than English,â Roselli adds. âThis is one of the preeminent values of learning foreign languages, dead or livingâbeyond the ability to read literature or the news, engage with people, or just live in a place where a âforeignâ language is used.â
For Yew, Scripps made her comfortable with the uncomfortable, which has proven vital in her doctorate work in AI. âIn research, you reach a point where no one has done what youâre doing,â she says. âBeing exposed to so many disciplines and being surrounded by people I admire made me a lot more tolerant of ambiguity.â
Looking Ahead
From the invention of the calculator to the first computer, AI has affected daily life for decades. Some refuse to engage with it, others unduly rely on itâand somewhere in the middle, Scripps is determining how it will inform the Collegeâs next 100 years.
As AI reshapes the world, Scripps Collegeâlike its students, faculty, and alumsâmust remain agile to prepare future generations for lives of purpose, influence, and prosperity. Who better to envision that future than a community rooted in missional values of leadership, service, integrity, and creativityâprinciples that predate, and will long outlast, every technological wave.
âThe jury is still out on the helpfulness of AI in studying ancient civilizations, or anything for that matter,â Vega says. âWhat may ultimately be most helpful about it is to remind us that deep understanding and beautiful art take time to createâand, for the sake of our humanity, it is worth it to take that time.