“AI Is Just a Tool”—and Other Fictions

Ever one to hope for the best, last semester I suggested that students use ChatGPT as a “research partner” in the big bibliographic project they do in the fall term of Parallel Narratives, their junior-level history-and-criticism class. In a 27-person class, only one student took me up on the idea. The rest looked vaguely distrustful and didn’t consider it. Later in the semester, that one student abandoned his plan for total ChatGPT involvement when it turned out his subject was…