Learn to think again: University of Chicago blocks AI use entirely for first-year law students
University of Chicago law students will have to learn to think for themselves
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- UChicago Law bans first-year students from using laptops, tablets, and phones during classroom instruction entirely
- The school aims to rebuild critical thinking skills after seeing widespread cheating and dependency on AI
- UChicago will still teach responsible AI use later, preparing students for real-world legal practice expectations
Enough is enough. After seeing their students cheat and lose the ability to think independently, the University of Chicago Law School announced it would ban first-year students from using phones and laptops in the classroom.
In a long statement, the school said it spent the past year reflecting on how to adopt the curriculum and policies in response to AI, seeking advice from its community of staff and students, as well as law firms and business leaders.
The overarching conclusion is clear: “We need to ensure that our students actually learn to think critically, strategically, and independently without relying on AI.”
To that end, first-year law students will be entirely banned from using electronic devices like laptops, tablets, and cell phones in the classroom.
Students will be there with a notebook and a pen and taking notes,Adam Chilton
Presumably, students will be able to inject themselves with some ChatGPT or Claude in their own dorms. But in the classroom, only specially designated “classroom scribes” will be able to use electronic devices to take notes for the class, the statement reads.
“Students will be there with a notebook and a pen and taking notes,” Adam Chilton, dean of UChicago Law, told CBS News.
“We want to ensure that our students are learning to think for themselves in a rigorous, critical way without relying on shortcuts through AI that might get them a quick answer but actually slow down the learning process.”
Cheating with the help of AI has been spreading. Earlier this month, a Brown University professor said he suspected that most of his class cheated using AI throughout the semester after an in-person exam revealed a significant drop in scores.
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A 2025 survey of Princeton University seniors also found that 27.7% of students admitted to using ChatGPT when it was not allowed, up 12.5% from the Class of 2024.
However, UChicago Law isn’t simply banning AI. As part of the strategy, students will also be taught “responsible, effective, and ethical use of AI,” and later in their studies, courses will explicitly focus on the use of AI and the creation of AI tools for legal work.
“We must face the reality that AI tools are already widely available to our students, and our graduates will be expected to be prepared to use them in legal practice,” said the school.
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“We do not want to deter uses of AI that can increase students’ effort and engagement, such as asking AI to clarify background concepts while reading before class or asking AI to generate practice problems while studying.”
Indeed, most law students in the US spend their summers as interns in professional environments where they’re expected to use AI tools for research and writing tasks.
Increasingly, though, lawyers are advised to be very careful when using tools such as ChatGPT since AI can hallucinate and invent information. If you use the slop in court, you’ll get in trouble.
