The state Legislature is poised to pass a bill that will require California State University courses to be taught by a human, an effort to prevent artificial intelligence from taking over course instruction.
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Although Senate Bill 928, authored by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, does not prohibit CSU employees from using AI in the course of their work, it requires that all university courses be taught by a faculty member.
Cervantes said that while there’s room in Cal State classrooms where AI can contribute, “human faculty are still necessary and best suited to teach human students.”
“California faculty provide a necessary human element in teaching,” Cervantes said in a news release. “SB 928 protects that personal connection and the guidance CSU faculty provide that cannot be replaced by AI.
“AI should be used in ways that improve education, not replace hardworking CSU faculty,” she said.
The California Faculty Association union and the California Federation of Labor Unions, sponsors of Cervantes’ bill, released a statement that said the growing use of AI in academic settings “has left many faculty employees concerned about the impact on their work.”
“Faculty employees play a critical role in student success by providing academic instruction, mentorship and support that directly impacts student retention, engagement, and personal growth,” the groups said.
“This bill recognizes the personal connection, guidance and the expertise CSU faculty provides to students that simply cannot be replaced by AI (and) is essential to protect jobs and preserve the human element that makes our educational institutions the best in the world,” they said.
Cervantes’ office said it is not aware of any Cal State campus using AI to teach a course. The senator has pointed to CSU’s $17 million contract with OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, that was announced in February to provide the AI model to all faculty, staff and students on its 22 campuses.
Nancy Watkins, director of Cal State Fullerton’s educational doctorate program, said the bill is a reasonable preventative measure.
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And while Watkins is an “enthusiastic adopter” of AI tools to help her design coursework for her classes, she is unsure whether AI could teach a class or impart the same level of knowledge onto students that a human instructor could. Watkins said she cannot outsource “my own judgement and relationship with students and even their accountability of learning.”
“I think that in education, the role between professors or teachers and students is creating a partnership; it’s about how we learn,” said Watkins. “I would almost call it the mentorship and the critical dialogue, being able to challenge a student who might be capable of a little bit more. AI can only respond to what input it’s given.”
Classroom settings allow students to engage in a collaborative process with each other to shape their own thinking, allowing for “critical human moments” that may not be picked up on if students were “simply talking” to an AI instructor, Watkins said.
“In some ways, AI narrows the learning, where being with others in a classroom environment or even in an online environment can push different perspectives,” she said.
Cervantes’ bill, co-authored by Democratic Assemblymembers Mike Fong, Mark González, Al Muratsuchi, Darshana Patel and LaShae Sharp-Collins, has received unanimous support throughout the legislative process.
And two other bills authored by Cervantes in recent years — both signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom — provided similar policies for California community colleges. One of these bills, SB 241, requires community college personnel to be human.
Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokesperson for the Cal State chancellor’s office, said that while the university system has not taken a position on the bill, its faculty members “play an essential role in fulfilling CSU’s mission and helping to shape California’s future.”
The CSU system “encourages the creative and curious use of Generative AI technologies,” the university says in its guidelines for safe and responsible use of AI tools. But a “central tenet” of Cal State’s AI strategy, Bentley-Smith said, “is keeping human intelligence at the core.”
“CSU’s faculty are crucial to the success of our students, and we value their exceptional scholarship, quality instruction and unwavering commitment,” Bentley-Smith said.
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