Niall Ferguson's Time Machine

Niall Ferguson's Time Machine

AI’s great brain robbery — and how universities can fight back

ChatGPT and its like have swept through academia, changing how students work, write and think. The bots are here to stay, so we need to reimagine learning

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Niall Ferguson
Jul 06, 2025
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Illustration of people seated, facing a translucent image of a head superimposed over an Oxford cityscape.

“Do you yet understand we’re living in a sci-fi novel”? That was the question posted on X last month by Mike Solana, a protégé of Peter Thiel. “Seems that way,” replied Elon Musk. He should know. Thirty years ago, you might have scoffed at a sci-fi book set in 2025 about a multibillionaire whose companies operate a vast fleet of self-driving electric ca…

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