# connelly-nyt-ai-companies-eating-higher-education-2026-02-12

## Veille

AI Companies vs. Higher Education: Student Dependency, Toxic Partnerships - NYT Opinion

## Titre Article

A.I. Companies Are Eating Higher Education

## Date

2026-02-12

## URL

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/opinion/ai-companies-college-students.html

## Keywords

Higher education, education, generative AI, student dependency, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, campus ambassadors, AI detection, watermarking, ChatGPT, critical thinking, close reading, AGI, Columbia University, ethics, conflict of interest, edtech, human intelligence

## Authors

Matthew Connelly (vice-doyen pour les initiatives IA, Columbia University)

## Ton

**Profile**: Opinion piece, alarmist and combative register, engaged university administrator's perspective

**Description**: Institutional whistleblower tone. Matthew Connelly writes as a defender of traditional education under siege, mobilizing military vocabulary ("battle between bots and brains," "hostile takeover," "strategic ground," "war lost before it is declared"). His authority comes from a dual role: university administrator responsible for AI at Columbia AND direct witness to AI companies' practices. The style alternates between concrete anecdotes (the cheating student funded by a16z, OpenAI suppressing its detector) and broader generalizations about defending human intelligence. The target audience consists of educators, academic decision-makers, and a public concerned about AI's impact on young people.

## Pense-betes

- **Central thesis**: AI companies are conducting a hostile takeover of higher education, and university administrators are collaborating out of fear of being "left behind"
- **AI company tactics denounced**:
- **Anthropic**: exorbitant fees for enterprise accounts + a "campus ambassadors" program paying students to promote Claude in schools, creating conflicts of interest (ambassadors elected to student government)
- **OpenAI**: developed a ChatGPT detector that is 99.9% accurate but refused to give it to educators because watermarking could drive users toward competitors
- **OpenAI**: free ChatGPT Plus for students during final exams (April)
- **Google**: free access to premium AI service for the full academic year
- **Perplexity**: 2024 competition rewarding campuses with the most sign-ups
- **Emblematic case**: Roy Lee (Columbia) developed an AI tool to cheat on tech job interviews → Andreessen Horowitz admired his "audacious approach" and raised $15M for his company Cluely, which wants to "cheat on everything"
- **Infrastructure ambitions**: OpenAI wants its bots to become "part of the core infrastructure of higher education" (admissions → academic advising)
- **Google NotebookLM**: tells students they will "learn faster and more deeply" by uploading lecture recordings (prohibited without permission at Columbia)
- **Cited research on harm**:
- Students using AI read less attentively during research
- Writing precision and originality decreased
- Students do not realize what they are losing
- Notable decline in questions asked by students to professors
- **Edtech: a history of failures**: decades of evidence show that educational technologies often fail to produce measurable improvements
- **Paradox**: the skills needed to harness AI's potential (critical reading, analytical thinking, argumentative writing) are precisely those that AI erodes
- **Final military metaphor**: "wars can be lost before they are declared if defenders abandon strategic ground without a fight. For universities, that ground is human intelligence itself."
- **Nuanced position**: some educators find ways to stimulate intellectual engagement with AI, others ban all use

## RésuméDe400mots

Matthew Connelly, vice dean for AI initiatives at Columbia University, writes an alarmist op-ed in the New York Times denouncing the way artificial intelligence companies are taking over higher education, with the unwitting complicity of university administrators.

**Aggressive strategies by AI companies**: Connelly describes an arsenal of tactics. Anthropic imposes exorbitant fees for enterprise accounts while paying "campus ambassadors" to promote Claude, creating conflicts of interest when these ambassadors sit on student government. OpenAI developed a ChatGPT text detector that is 99.9% accurate but refused to make it available to educators, fearing that watermarking would push users toward competitors. During final exams, OpenAI offers ChatGPT Plus free to students, Google gives premium access for the entire year, and Perplexity runs sign-up competitions on campuses.

**Emblematic case of drift**: a Columbia student, Roy Lee, developed an AI tool to cheat on job interviews. Far from being sanctioned by the industry, Andreessen Horowitz admired his "audacious approach" and raised $15 million for his company Cluely, whose manifesto announces its intent to "cheat on everything."

**Infrastructure ambitions**: OpenAI aspires for its bots to become "part of the core infrastructure of higher education," from admissions to academic advising. Google invites students to upload their lecture recordings to NotebookLM, a practice Columbia prohibits without authorization. Universities have no access to the data their students and faculty feed into these systems.

**Impact on learning**: research shows that students using AI read less attentively, write with less precision and originality, and do not realize what they are losing. Professors report a notable decline in questions asked in class. The central paradox: the skills needed to harness AI's real potential — critical reading, analytical thinking, argumentative writing — are precisely those that passive AI use erodes.

**Call to resistance**: Connelly concludes with a military metaphor: wars can be lost before they are declared if defenders abandon strategic ground without a fight. For universities, that ground is human intelligence itself. He calls on educators to defend and advance human intelligence rather than be seduced by unbalanced partnerships with an industry whose interests fundamentally diverge from the educational mission.

## GrapheDeConnaissance

- Matthew Connelly —affirme_que→ entreprises IA mènent une prise de contrôle hostile de l'enseignement supérieur (AFFIRMATION, 0.98)
- Anthropic —utilise→ campus ambassadors (CONCEPT, 0.95)
- Matthew Connelly —affirme_que→ Anthropic impose des frais exorbitants pour les comptes entreprise universitaires (AFFIRMATION, 0.93)
- OpenAI —a_créé→ détecteur de texte généré (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.97)
- OpenAI —prédit→ intégration dans infrastructure centrale de l'enseignement supérieur (AFFIRMATION, 0.9)
- Roy Lee —a_créé→ Cluely (ORGANISATION, 0.98)
- Andreessen Horowitz —soutient→ Cluely (ORGANISATION, 0.98)
- Cluely —affirme_que→ veut aider les utilisateurs à tricher sur tout (AFFIRMATION, 0.97)
- Google —utilise→ NotebookLM (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.95)
- usage passif de l'IA —réduit→ compétences de lecture critique et d'écriture (CONCEPT, 0.88)
- entreprises IA —s_applique_à→ étudiants universitaires comme base client (CONCEPT, 0.92)
- Columbia University —emploie→ Matthew Connelly (PERSONNE, 0.99)
- Perplexity —a_créé→ compétition d'inscriptions sur campus (2024) (EVENEMENT, 0.95)
- Sam Altman —affirme_que→ les éducateurs devraient mener le prochain tournant avec l'IA (AFFIRMATION, 0.93)
- Matthew Connelly —recommande→ résistance active des universités face aux entreprises IA (AFFIRMATION, 0.97)

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Canonical: https://www.thekb.eu/en/fiches/connelly-nyt-ai-companies-eating-higher-education-2026-02-12/