Students Resist AI with Self-Reflection

Why this is here: One student realized his own lack of humility after a local volunteer pointed out the contrast between his words and the reputation of students from his school during a service trip.

Princeton professor Allan Silver taught an undergraduate seminar on the self this fall. He and his colleagues initially worried about students using artificial intelligence to complete assignments.

Silver designed the course to help students develop “people skills”—understanding themselves and others with honesty. He asked students to write weekly essays responding to prompts and drawing on texts in anthropology and psychoanalysis.

Students explored their own experiences, such as one student dancing in Jerusalem and another confronting expectations through a math proof. Silver shared an unpublished memoir, modeling a continuing process of self-formation. He found that engaging with personal experiences proved more valuable than polished writing.

The professor argues that AI cannot replicate genuine self-reflection because it lacks lived experience. He believes the humanities offer a crucial practice of examining inner life, something not easily measured or replicated by technology. The course continues to shape how Silver approaches teaching.