Purdue University Approves New AI Requirement For All Undergrads (forbes.com) 26
Nonprofit Code.org released its 2025 State of AI & Computer Science Education report this week with a state-by-state analysis of school policies complaining that "0 out of 50 states require AI+CS for graduation."
But meanwhile, at the college level, "Purdue University will begin requiring that all of its undergraduate students demonstrate basic competency in AI," writes former college president Michael Nietzel, "starting with freshmen who enter the university in 2026." The new "AI working competency" graduation requirement was approved by the university's Board of Trustees at its meeting on December 12... The requirement will be embedded into every undergraduate program at Purdue, but it won't be done in a "one-size-fits-all" manner. Instead, the Board is delegating authority to the provost, who will work with the deans of all the academic colleges to develop discipline-specific criteria and proficiency standards for the new campus-wide requirement. [Purdue president] Chiang said students will have to demonstrate a working competence through projects that are tailored to the goals of individual programs. The intent is to not require students to take more credit hours, but to integrate the new AI expectation into existing academic requirements...
While the news release claimed that Purdue may be the first school to establish such a requirement, at least one other university has introduced its own institution-wide expectation that all its graduates acquire basic AI skills. Earlier this year, The Ohio State University launched an AI Fluency initiative, infusing basic AI education into core undergraduate requirements and majors, with the goal of helping students understand and use AI tools — no matter their major.
Purdue wants its new initiative to help graduates:
— Understand and use the latest AI tools effectively in their chosen fields, including being able to identify the key strengths and limits of AI technologies;
— Recognize and communicate clearly about AI, including developing and defending decisions informed by AI, as well as recognizing the influence and consequences of AI in decision-making;
— Adapt to and work with future AI developments effectively.
But meanwhile, at the college level, "Purdue University will begin requiring that all of its undergraduate students demonstrate basic competency in AI," writes former college president Michael Nietzel, "starting with freshmen who enter the university in 2026." The new "AI working competency" graduation requirement was approved by the university's Board of Trustees at its meeting on December 12... The requirement will be embedded into every undergraduate program at Purdue, but it won't be done in a "one-size-fits-all" manner. Instead, the Board is delegating authority to the provost, who will work with the deans of all the academic colleges to develop discipline-specific criteria and proficiency standards for the new campus-wide requirement. [Purdue president] Chiang said students will have to demonstrate a working competence through projects that are tailored to the goals of individual programs. The intent is to not require students to take more credit hours, but to integrate the new AI expectation into existing academic requirements...
While the news release claimed that Purdue may be the first school to establish such a requirement, at least one other university has introduced its own institution-wide expectation that all its graduates acquire basic AI skills. Earlier this year, The Ohio State University launched an AI Fluency initiative, infusing basic AI education into core undergraduate requirements and majors, with the goal of helping students understand and use AI tools — no matter their major.
Purdue wants its new initiative to help graduates:
— Understand and use the latest AI tools effectively in their chosen fields, including being able to identify the key strengths and limits of AI technologies;
— Recognize and communicate clearly about AI, including developing and defending decisions informed by AI, as well as recognizing the influence and consequences of AI in decision-making;
— Adapt to and work with future AI developments effectively.
On the way to Idiocracy ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... another step was taken.
Re: (Score:2)
Why?
The requirements sound very reasonable, if they are really implemented in such a way that the people who satisfy them receive the described competences.
True, there is the small matter that satisfying all of the above adequately will require covering enough for an advanced degree in statistics, but then there ain't nothing inherently bad about having a bit more math in any curriculum.
But I'm completely confident that the school will provide a more formal specification of the requirements and will offer s
Re: (Score:3)
The Purdue intention is quoted as:
> Purdue wants its new initiative to help graduates:
> — Understand and use the latest AI tools effectively in their chosen fields, including being able to identify the key strengths and limits of AI technologies;
> — Recognize and communicate clearly about AI, including developing and defending decisions informed by AI, as well as recognizing the influence and consequences of AI in decision-making;
> — Adapt to and work with future AI development
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. But there are tons of natural idiots that may be even dumber than "AI" of the LLM-variant and they are in awe because they do not understand what is going on. And many of them are aggressive.
Re: On the way to Idiocracy ... (Score:1)
It is fucking creepy (Score:5, Insightful)
In America the last election cycle I watched as sane washing became a thing and anyone that criticized Donald Trump in the media got fired.
And now with AI over and over again I keep seeing just a giant middle finger from the ruling class and the billionaires that make up the ruling class.
So they take all the electronics from us and all the electricity in the water and they build data centers that cause tons of problems and if we don't like it and tell them no they just have the state government order us to fuck off and build the data centers anyway.
And now I get to watch them basically take over education.
Remember the only problem AI solves is paying wages. It's not a product and it's not a solution to anything you want. We already had machine learning algorithms for the science stuff what we call AI is just there so that the guys at the top don't have to pay you anymore.
Dirty Little secret of the American ruling class is that they hate capitalism. They hate competition and they hate consumers. And remember you're a consumer so that means they hate you
Re:It is fucking creepy (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed. But there are plenty of useful idiots that do not get it and are easily manipulated into voting against their own best interests. And there is large population of deeply malicious voters as well that only care about "hurting the other side".
The useful idiots don't bother me so much (Score:3)
It's mostly people over 50 who have the I got mine fuck you attitude. The kind of people who are angry they can't use the n word in public anymore.
A convicted felon with 28 credible rape accusations couldn't be president without complicity from a large group of people. Without willing participation
Re: (Score:2)
Well, we can argue whether useful idiots share the blame or not. It is a complex question with no easy answer.
I fully agree that the "I got mine and fuck you" people are complicit and malicious.
Would rather make them learn cursive (Score:2)
religion (Score:1)
Define: basic competency in AI (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, I know enough about teaching to know that you just invent a rubric, then you say that's the standard you must meet.
As IT people, we know very well, how to do that. Nobody knows what "rubric" means. We do do that all day long to confuse our clients and get money out of them. I just start talking about data, databases, networks, encryption, etc, and my clients roll over and pay. First they get a glazed look in their eye, then they look very drowsy. Then they say, "that sounds good who do I make the cheque out to."
Invent terms, make it sound complicated, and then you are the expert.
I'm not buying it, but chumps everywhere will.
So, no one will ask if "The Board of Trustees" knows fuck all about AI.
Talk to the rubric.
Re:Define: basic competency in AI (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, nobody knows what that means.
And that is really the long and the short of it. LLM-type AI is immature and does not fulfill professional standards in most applications it is used for. Nobody knows whether that can even be fixed. Nobody knows whether it will still be around in a couple of years, because business models that actually generate revenue remain elusive.
What happens here is that an unproven technology with multiple severe problems is made mandatory to be studied and used by far to many people. That is not good at all.
Re: (Score:2)
What is next for our elite schools? See Dick. See Dick Run. See Dick run fast.
Re: (Score:3)
As IT people, we know very well, how to do that.
Do you also know very well, how commas work?
Code.org (Score:4, Informative)
Code.org is just an industry advocacy group and lobbyist. Their actions demonstrate that their mission is to make money for tech companies, so they should have their nonprofit status revoked. They're basically just an industry marketing effort.
"Basic competency" (Score:4, Interesting)
able to identify the key strengths and limits (Score:3)
"Understand and use the latest AI tools effectively in their chosen fields, including being able to identify the key strengths and limits of AI technologies"
This is now a critical skill and it should definitely be taught in college, probably earlier as well. AI in its current form has strengths and weaknesses, and in order to work with it effectively you need to know what those are. Expect too much and it will fail, wasting your time. Expect too little and you will also be wasting time. There are some learned techniques for efficiently getting what you want with minimal effort and risk. It is very appropriate that this valuable skill would be a requirement in higher education.
And it is a moving target as the AI implementations are continuously enhanced. I am using free versions at times now that are equivalent to the somewhat costly ones from just a few months ago. I can moderate my expenses by knowing which to choose depending upon the complexity of the problem or the objectives.
Re: (Score:2)
You're assuming that the current skills will serve you later. This MAY be true, but is by no means guaranteed. The interfaces of current AIs are definitely quite immature, and can be expected to change a lot. Probably also their competency.
Re: (Score:3)
>> assuming that the current skills will serve you later
In tech work you can always assume that the current skills will eventually be obsolete and you'll have to pick up some new ones. AI is improving rapidly, and I'm already noticing that I don't have to nurse it along as much. At the present time it does require skill to use it effectively. Maybe in a couple of years it won't.
Yesterday I wrote a several-sentence prompt describing a feature I wanted to implement and how to accomplish it. The AI immed
Re: (Score:2)
The FORTRAN IV that I wrote in the early 1960's would still compile and run today. The FORTRAN II that people were writing a few years earlier wouldn't even compile and run by the time I started programming.
AI Requirement is Via a Google Partnership (Score:3)
From the AI@Purdue [purdue.edu] page: "Beginning in fall of 2026, we will implement an AI working competency graduation requirement through an expanded partnership with Google."
Prior to its approval by the Purdue Board of Trustees, Purdue President Mung Chiang and CEO of Google Public Sector Karen Dahut announced plans to introduce the new working AI competency graduation requirement in mid-November at the 2025 Google-Purdue AI Summit [purdue.edu].
At a Sept. 2025 White House meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai committed $3 million to Code.org, the tech-backed nonprofit that is working towards a goal of requiring "all students to earn credit for an AI and CS course for high school graduation [code.org]."
As if the students weren't already using AI... (Score:4)
...to do their homework. I'm pretty sure the students are well ahead of the school on this front.
But I saw a post the other day about a teacher who asked their students to use AI write an essay, and then write about what the AI got wrong in that essay. No details were provided so it might be apocryphal, but it sounds like a great way to teach students some very useful skills.
If that isn't happening already, it needs to start, everywhere, ASAP.