University of Texas law dean shifts AI policy to prevent 'cognitive deskilling'
The dean of the University of Texas School of Law has revised the school's AI policy with the goal of preventing students from losing core legal reasoning skills through over-reliance on AI tools. The policy shift reflects growing concern in legal education that habitual AI use may erode the foundational thinking lawyers need.
Why this matters: Law schools are starting to reckon with something practical: if students use AI to do their thinking, they may graduate without the ability to think like lawyers. That matters beyond academia. The people arguing your case, drafting your contract, or advising you on your rights need skills built through hard repetition, not shortcuts. AI can be a useful tool. But if legal training quietly hollows out, the people harmed first will be clients who cannot afford to hire the most experienced attorneys and have no way of knowing what their lawyer actually learned.
Who should care: AI governance · Lawyers · Administrators · General readers · Policy
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