Artificial Intelligence. The future of higher education?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is frequently hailed as a ‘solution’ to many of education’s core problems (e.g., OECD, 2021) – problems such as the lack of qualified educators, student underachievement, and better preparing learners for 21st century career paths. However, such claims tend to be aspirational rather than evidence-based (Miao & Holmes, 2021), and overly simplistic, forgetting issues such as agency, pedagogy, surveillance, efficacy, and ethics (Holmes et al., 2021; Holmes et al., 2022; Holmes & Porayska-Pomsta, 2022). In fact, current applications of AI in education tend to be solutions- rather than problems-oriented, and all too often replace educator functions rather than empower educators; while the teaching of AI almost always focuses on the technological dimension of AI to the exclusion of the human dimension (its ethical, human, and social implications). Accordingly, this presentation will explore the application and teaching of Artificial Intelligence in education from a critical studies and human rights perspective. It will identify and address many of the key myths, it will explore the elephant in the room (ChatGPT and similar tools), it will argue for a new trajectory, and will pose more questions about AI and the future of higher education than it answers.