A mixture of awe and fear is a natural reaction of many educators when first exposed to chatbots that use AI large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. Signs of misuse are evident in academia all over the world, both in student plagiarism and in educators using AI instead of thorough evaluation of student work. While detection tools are available, they do not provide reliable detection. Other complementary tools such as agents are offering students at all levels ubiquitous access to AI tools in all types of college assessments. How could such a threat to education be faced, should educational institutions focus on filtering, detecting, or banning AI technology, or should educators utilize the advantages LLMs could offer education. The author’s intention is to provide insights and shed light on success stories where AI threats were turned into learning opportunities. The paper ends with a set of recommendations for a more general, collaborative, experience based and policy-based approaches in dealing with the topic of AI use in academia.