The bad news is that academia is getting worse. The good news is it’s making itself irrelevant.

While some educational systems are struggling with AI, UCLA has decided to replace itself with AI.

In a move to further position UCLA at the forefront of artificial intelligence advancements and to bring focused innovative technology to UCLA and the University of California system, the campus is set to introduce OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise to its academic, administrative and research communities.

This agreement with OpenAI makes UCLA the first university in California to incorporate this advanced technology into its operations. The agreement, which was negotiated with support from the UC Office of the President, also paves the way for other UC campuses to access and use a UC-specific version of OpenAI’s interactive and natural language–based tool.

And yes, literally replace itself with AI.

Zrinka Stahuljak’s comparative literature course next quarter will cover much of the same subject matter she has taught in years past: a sweeping survey of writing from the Middle Ages to the 17th century.

But, thanks to AI, the course format and materials will take on a totally new look for 2025.

Comp Lit 2BW will be the first course in the UCLA College Division of Humanities to be built around the Kudu artificial intelligence platform. The textbook: AI-generated. Class assignments: AI-generated. Teaching assistants’ resources: AI-generated.

The student responses: AI generated.

Students will be missing out on the innovative academic work of Zrinka Stahuljak such as ‘Pornographic Archaeology’ and “Transgender Translation, Humanism, and Periodization: Vasco da Lucena’s Manuscripts of The Deeds of Alexander the Great”.

But they’ll be gaining the knowledge that academia is a shell game with no more shells.

At this point we can just defund most of this mess and replace it with AI and still have more intellectual content than ‘Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before the Modern’.