"Wishing for the 1950s past is a bad mistake," warned LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman in a May 14 "Possible" podcast, where he and co-host Aria Finger argued that artificial intelligence examiners will overhaul higher-education assessments.
The veteran investor said professors clinging to decades-old curricula risk irrelevance as AI tools powered by dynamic questioning enter lecture halls, pushing universities toward tougher, real-time oral exams.
AI Forces A Faster Study Sprint
Generative AI has already vaulted into student toolkits. A survey published in February by the Higher Education Policy Institute and digital publisher Kortext found 92% of U.K. undergraduates use such tools—up from 66% a year earlier—while 88% have inserted AI-generated text directly into assignments.
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"I could spend 30 hours writing an essay, or I could spend 90 minutes with my ChatGPT, Claude, Pi—whatever—prompting and generating something for that," Hoffman said, arguing that such shortcuts undermine the "whole point" of college: learning. He predicted AI-enabled tools will continue to spread until professors embed the technology into assessments rather than try to ban it.
Colleges are already adjusting. Academic integrity firm Turnitin revised its AI-writing detector to hide scores below 20% to curb false positives and focus faculty on serious violations.
A March survey at Ohio State University that explored how students use generative AI found that 73% of undergraduates use generative AI into weekly study routines. "You can't ignore the new tool," Hoffman said, adding that an AI examiner able to ask follow-up questions "will be harder to fake than the pre-AI times."
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Why Hoffman Backs AI-Oral Exams
Enforcement still lags. In early April, the Times of London reported that fewer than 1 in 400 Russell Group students faced discipline for AI cheating last year despite 90% admitting tool usage, underscoring the gap Hoffman expects AI-proctored orals to close.
Because oral questioning demands mastery across "the whole zoom" of a course, Hoffman urged departments to convert some multiple-choice finals into viva-voce sessions overseen by large-language models.
Pilot Programs Show What's Coming Next
Pilots are underway. In January, Arizona State University and OpenAI launched a campus-wide challenge inviting faculty to embed ChatGPT Enterprise into lessons. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech's language-instruction pilot using the Spirant Assistant has been discontinued. According to Britta Kallin, associate professor and German program director at Georgia Tech, the program was halted because the computer scientist overseeing Spirant AI determined it was too costly to maintain and develop.
Hoffman closed the episode by reminding educators their mission remains to prepare graduates to thrive alongside intelligent agents. "The most central thing is preparing students to be capable, healthy, happy participants in the new world," he said.
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