New Delhi: A growing number of protests against artificial intelligence is sweeping the United States, as students and teachers revolt against the use of AI-assisted classroom tools and surveillance systems in campuses.
Earlier this week, posters reading, ”Ain’t gonna study AI no more”, “AI is a weapon” “STOP AI SLOP” could be seen at a protest at the University of Columbia. Some protestors also made up the song, ‘Ain’t gonna trust AI.’
These protests are fuelled by concerns of academic deterioration, increased surveillance, and a lack of job opportunities due to AI. Columbia undergrad Brooklyn Tyner told Bloomberg that the advancements in AI are no longer exciting if they pollute the environment, spread misinformation, and “take our jobs.”
Tyner also called OpenAI and its ChatGPT a “cheating machine”.
With the rise of AI, more and more students have resorted to the technology to help them with their workload. A Lumina Foundation-Gallup State of Higher Education study from April 2026, published on Gallup News, found that 57 per cent of American college students are using AI for their coursework at least weekly, including about one in five who say they use it daily.
Earlier this month, on 8 May, during a graduation ceremony at the University of Central Florida, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield likened the rise of AI to that of the industrial revolution. While the majority of the audience booed Caulfield, some audience members yelled, “AI sucks”.
Campus uprisings
Columbia University first used an AI voice to announce students’ names during graduation ceremonies in May 2025. The university used the AI tool again during the following year’s ceremonies, students and professors have consistently urged the University to discontinue using the technology and to separate itself from all AI-related platforms. (MOVED DOWN)
Anti-AI protests intensified ahead of its graduation day and protestors demanded a stop to replacing human participation in ceremonies with automated tools.
“An AI voice reading names at commencement? Would you like to have an AI voice officiate at your wedding? Or at the funeral of a family member,” said Michael Thaddeus, professor of Mathematics, according to the university’s official newspaper, Columbia Daily Spectator.
Students at the University of South Carolina have been protesting against the university’s $1.5 million partnership with OpenAI since it was first signed in 2025.
Meanwhile, students at Northeastern University staged protests upon discovering that some faculty members were using AI to plan lessons. They also called for a tuition refund, citing the hypocrisy of universities punishing students for using AI in their assignments, while their faculty members themselves used the technology.
Bhavya Priya is an alum of ThePrint School of Journalism. She is currently interning with ThePrint.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)