Cornell Lecturer Turns to Typewriters as Generative AI Disrupts Student Writing

The spread of generative AI has enabled university students to produce essays quickly, while making it harder for instructors to determine whether assignments reflect students’ own understanding and writing ability. A Cornell University lecturer has responded by bringing manual typewriters into the classroom, asking students to step away from digital tools and once again work through the full process of developing ideas, writing, revising and creating independently.

In the latest teaching experiment, students must compose their work directly on mechanical typewriters, without immediate access to generative AI, search engines or autocorrect. Reports did not disclose the exact launch date, class size, equipment procurement cost or data on the initiative’s effectiveness, but the move has emerged as a concrete example of how higher education is responding to concerns about AI-written assignments.