GenAI won’t replace you. But it may replace the skills that make you human.
In February 2025, Ella Stapleton opened lecture notes posted by her Northeastern University professor and froze.
Buried in the document was a ChatGPT prompt: "Expand on all areas. Be more detailed and specific."
The rest revealed more red flags—distorted images, robotic phrasing, and generic bullet points. Her professor had banned students from using GenAI, then quietly used it himself to create their course materials.
Stapleton filed a formal complaint and requested an $8,000 tuition refund. As The New York Times reported, she’s part of a growing group of students who aren’t just calling out the hypocrisy, they’re making a financial argument:
“We’re paying, often quite a lot, to be taught by humans, not by an algorithm we could use for free.”
Her case reflects a deeper tension emerging across workplaces: When does AI assistance become AI dependence? And what happens to our human judgment when AI machines do our thinking?
Quick Takeaways
- GenAI makes work faster but also flatter. Its output looks polished but often lacks the depth and thought that comes from our critical thinking.
- GenAI use without disclosure erodes trust. People expect to know when a human is present, especially in moments that require empathy, insight, or fairness.
- Use our GenAI Self-Audit Toolkit to stay sharp. These 5 prompts help you spot when GenAI is doing too much. And when you need to re-engage your human skills.
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