University of Chicago bars AI from its Social Sciences Core and makes classes device-free

The University of Chicago’s Social Sciences Collegiate Division has barred generative AI from the Social Sciences Core sequences that every undergraduate must take, and will run the classes device-free from Autumn Quarter 2026. The University of Chicago AI ban was set out in guidance issued by Jenny Trinitapoli, master of the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, which states that the courses are “collectively designed to be taught as ‘analog’ courses” in the academic year the university labels AY 2027. The document, titled “2026-27 SOSC AI and Tech Guidance”, was obtained and published by The Chicago Maroon on 24 August 2026, and confirmed on the record by the College.

The restriction applies to students and instructors alike. Students read texts on paper, put laptops and phones away, and engage with the material through guided in-person discussion. Recording of discussions is prohibited. Instructors may not use AI to grade, and all SOSC syllabi are to be produced by human scholars. The guidance sets out its reasoning in one sentence: “in the SOSC Core we first equip students to read, write, and think without dependence on AI, just as we equip students to read, write, and think beyond the bounds of conventional views or leading ideologies.”

What the University of Chicago AI ban covers

The Social Sciences Core, known as SOSC, is one of nine areas of the College’s Core curriculum. It is a year-long, three-quarter sequence worth 300 of the 1,500 to 1,600 units the Core requires, and every undergraduate must complete it, normally in the second year after the Humanities sequence. Students choose one sequence and stay in it for three consecutive quarters. The College lists eight sequences, including Power, Identity, and Resistance; Self, Culture, and Society; Classics of Social and Political Thought; Social Science Inquiry; Mind; Global Society; Religion: Cosmos, Conscience, and Community; and Democracy: Equality, Liberty, and the Dilemmas of Self-Government. The SOSC Writing Program describes supporting more than 75 sections across six sequences. The University enrolled 7,496 undergraduates in autumn 2025, according to its Office of Institutional Analysis.

Source: 2026-27 SOSC AI and Tech Guidance, as reported by The Chicago Maroon, 24 August 2026, and Inside Higher Ed, 26 August 2026.

Scope matters here, and the coverage has been loose about it. This is a divisional decision, not a university-wide one. The Maroon reports that Civilization Studies instructors were asked for their view on adopting similar guidelines but that no explicit AI or technology restrictions are being introduced there for now, and that Humanities Core chairs are still discussing 2026-27. Separately, the Law School announced in July 2026 that it would bar laptops, tablets and phones from class and return most first-year courses to in-person exams.

College spokesperson Katelyn Yoshimoto said the policy “is intended to reduce classroom distractions and encourage face-to-face discussions among students and instructors, an important element of SOSC Core classes”. The University told the Maroon that the guidance was developed by the SOSC Core chairs; Inside Higher Ed describes it as a memo sent to programme chairs and dates it 1 August 2026, a date no other outlet gives. Inside Higher Ed also refers to “this fall semester”; the University of Chicago runs on quarters.

A ban announced while the university rolls out Claude

The decision runs against the direction the University set in June. On 2 June 2026, President Paul Alivisatos announced a partnership with Anthropic making Claude Enterprise available to all academics and staff from July 2026 and to all students before the autumn term. His announcement said that “in some cases, it is clear that AI tools can be brought to bear with the desired results” while “in others, we will do better by retaining our previous approaches or even developing new policies to expressly protect against misuse”, and told students that “policies vary by course, and you are required to follow them closely”. Yoshimoto put the same point more bluntly to the Maroon: access to Claude or any AI does not mean that every use is appropriate or permitted.

The university’s central position leaves classroom rules to instructors. Its Generative AI Guidance, maintained by the Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, prohibits use of confidential data with publicly available generative AI tools without prior security and privacy review, makes users responsible for the accuracy and ownership of AI-generated content, and refers academic integrity questions to the Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning and the Student Manual. It sets no university-wide rule on AI use in coursework. The Artificial Intelligence and Education Working Group, convened by Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker on 24 February 2025 and published on 31 July 2025, framed the university’s approach around teaching students to think with machines, without them, and about them. The SOSC guidance cites that report, saying it “emphasizes the centrality of human engagement, human interaction, and human expertise to UChicago’s educational mission.”

Trinitapoli is a professor of sociology and holds three administrative roles: Deputy Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences, Master of the Social Sciences Collegiate Division and Deputy Dean of the College. Axios described her as the division’s dean; the University’s own directory uses master. She has not spoken to any outlet about the guidance, and every quotation in circulation comes from the document itself.

An unusual position among 2026 university policies

Most institutional announcements this year have moved the other way. Winss Solutions reported this week that an MIT committee found AI can produce credible solutions to almost any undergraduate assignment and recommended that every course state an explicit policy from a menu of four, ranging from unrestricted use to outright prohibition. Earlier coverage tracked Purdue making AI coursework a graduation requirement and Brown University publishing its first generative AI in teaching report, which asked faculty to de-emphasise punishment and avoid highly restrictive rules. Survey work summarised in coverage of AI in higher education reaching a tipping point found 30 per cent of faculty at institutions that integrate AI describing their policy as effective, against 13 per cent at institutions that ban it.

What distinguishes the Chicago decision from a conventional prohibition is that it changes the format of teaching rather than only the rules of assessment. The guidance does not propose detection software, proctoring or penalties. It removes the devices from the room, which is a design choice about how a discussion class works rather than an enforcement mechanism, and it applies the same rule to the instructor.

About the University of Chicago Core

The Core curriculum dates to the 1930s and the presidency of Robert Maynard Hutchins, and remains the structural centre of a Chicago undergraduate degree. In its current form it spans nine areas and 1,500 to 1,600 units, roughly 15 to 16 quarter courses, taught in small discussion sections built around primary texts rather than survey lectures. The Humanities and Social Sciences sequences are the largest components, each a year-long sequence taken in the first two years, and both must be taken for quality grades.

The College describes the Core as laying the groundwork for higher-level study, a phrase the SOSC guidance quotes back at itself in explaining the ban. The division’s argument is that a discussion class built on close reading of primary texts is a specific pedagogical setting, and that the guidance reflects “the strong consensus of the SOSC core” that those sequences are best understood as a setting without AI. Whether the same reasoning is extended to the Humanities Core will be decided by its course chairs, whose discussions on 2026-27 were still open when the SOSC guidance became public.

Sources: The Chicago Maroon; Inside Higher Ed; Axios Chicago; University of Chicago, Office of the President; University of Chicago, Office of the Provost; University of Chicago College; University of Chicago College Catalog; University of Chicago Division of the Social Sciences; University of Chicago, Generative AI Guidance; University of Chicago Office of Institutional Analysis

Featured image: photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels (free Pexels license).

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Figen Sekin

I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.