Critical Thinking

Coburn says that natural intelligence is a good place to start in combatting the artificial version. “You have to be able to put what you’re looking at through a critical thinking process, ask questions, and find the source and firsthand information about what you're trying to understand,” she says.

“It's really important for educators and students alike that those information literacy and critical thinking skills that you have are all the more important now,” agrees Nemeroff.

Both Coburn and Nemeroff suggest that librarians, media specialists, and those at your school who teach media literacy need to be on the front lines in the battle against AI slop.

Students who've learned dialogic engagement with AI behave completely differently. They ask follow-up questions during class discussions. They can explain their reasoning when challenged. They challenge each other's arguments using evidence they personally evaluated. They identify limitations in their own conclusions. They want to keep investigating beyond the assignment requirements.

The difference is how they used it.

This means approaching every AI interaction as a sustained interrogation. Instead of "write an analysis of symbolism in The Great Gatsby," students must "generate an AI analysis first, then critique what it missed with their own interpretations of the symbolism. “What assumptions does the AI make in its interpretation and how could it be wrong?" “What would a 20th-century historian say about this approach?” “Can you see these themes present in The Great Gatsby in your own life?”

Using AI effectively should still take considerable time as you interrogate, correct, and modify outputs. You're engaging in what feels like human dialogue, a back-and-forth dance where you bring expertise and the AI brings information processing.