Reading is a task in most college-level courses, and you might wonder about the role that Generative AI (GenAI) can play in reading assignments. A good place to start with course-based reading is the question: “What’s the purpose of reading in the course? What do I need to get out of it?” For example, for your literature class, you may need to be able to identify quotations that demonstrate a specific theme you notice, or for math you may need to recognize and understand the steps in a process used to solve a problem so you can replicate it on your own. Check out Reading for a Purpose to get clarity on the kind of reading relevant to your coursework.
Considerations when Using GenAI Tools
If you’re considering using GenAI tools to engage with reading, there are some important limitations of the tool to keep in mind:
- Hallucinations: AI output may be inaccurate or false information.
- Oversimplification/generalization: AI output may reduce the complexity of ideas or generalize in ways that don’t represent the nuance of the text.
- Unnecessary content: Gen AI tools pull from a variety of content, and without boundaries, the output may add information from sources that don’t align with your course material (MIT Sloan Teaching & Learning Technologies).
Even if you can load the content directly into AI to be read (vs relying on a citation in the prompt), it can still generate errors. Learn more about the limitations of GenAI and LLMs through this video series from the AI Literacy Center.
Learning from Reading
Much of your learning from reading happens through direct engagement—from actively processing information, forming questions, recognizing repetition of important information, and evaluating what you understand or don’t understand in the moment. AI summarization reduces the direct engagement you have with the content, so it’s important to make intentional choices about how to use Gen AI Tools for reading-related tasks. Intentional choices can ensure you’re developing crucial reading comprehension skills and beginning to transfer information to memory.
GenAI-Supported Reading Strategies
Generate additional explanations or examples
AI can be used to expand your understanding of a concept by offering additional examples, connections, or applications—particularly if you’re feeling stuck with the examples provided. Here are some strategy examples:
- Ask AI to generate multiple explanations of the concept, an applied example, or ways this concept is similar to or different from other concepts
- Prompt AI to compile a list of sources referenced in the reading so you can engage with multiple examples or applications of the concept.
Check Your Understanding
If your goal is to understand the main ideas of a reading, the “pause and recall” approach to reading is one of the most powerful strategies that also gives you a chance to practice retrieval. You can find comprehension strategies in Tips to Try While You Read. Here are some AI-supported strategies that encourage you to pause and recall.
- Enter a summary of what you just read in your own words. Ask AI to tell you what you got right, what didn’t line up, and what’s missing.
- Prompt AI to generate a potential multiple-choice test question based on the concept. Enter your answer, explaining why you think it’s that answer and why you don’t think it’s the other answers. Prompt AI to check your work and provide resources for any missed questions.
Where else can you do this? There are many ways to engage with readings or to expand your understanding of concepts. Talking to peers, working with a study group, visiting office hours, using drop-in tutoring (where available), and cross-referencing your answer with other course materials are additional resources that can prioritize your learning and understanding.
What about Summary?
In some instances, the use of AI-generated summaries doesn’t undermine your learning, but those are primarily cases where the task is not about learning the content. For example, you might use AI if you are
- briefly previewing the topic before class to get a sense of the main vocabulary and key ideas.
- skimming the article to get familiar with the general flow.
- scanning a lot of sources to decide what to read in more depth.
In those scenarios you still need to follow up with deep reading, annotating, and summarization/recall activities if your goal is to learn content from the readings.
If reading itself is what feels cumbersome, consider other techniques to make it manageable: listen to an audio version of the content, break it into small chunks, or form a reading group with classmates to talk through sections together.
References
Jobbitt, T. (2025). Exploring the benefits and limitations of AI summarization tools in teacher education. American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, 9(09), 172–182.
https://www.ajhssr.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/U25909172182.pdf
MIT Sloan Teaching & Learning Technologies. (n.d.). When AI gets it wrong: Addressing AI hallucinations and bias. https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/basics/addressing-ai-hallucinations-a…;