Generative AI and the Automating of Academia

Abstract

The neoliberal transformation of higher education in the UK and an intertwined focus on the productive efficiency and prestige value of universities has led to an epidemic of overwork and precarity among academics. Many are found to be struggling with lofty performance expectations and an insistence that all dimensions of their work consistently achieve positional gains despite ferocious competition and the omnipresent threat of failure. Working under the current audit culture present across education, academics are thus found to overwork or commit to accelerated labour as pre-emptive compensation for the habitual inclemency of peer-review and vagaries of student evaluation, in accommodating the copiousness of ‘invisible’ tasks, and in eluding the myriad crevasses of their precarious labour. The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools and more specifically, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, offers potential relief for academics and a means to offset intensive demands and discover more of a work-based equilibrium. Through a recent survey of n = 284 UK academics and their use of GAI, we discover, however, that the digitalisation of higher education through GAI tools no more alleviates than extends the dysfunctions of neoliberal logic and deepens academia’s malaise. Notwithstanding, we argue that the proliferating use of GAI tools by academics may be harnessed as a source of positive disruption to the industrialisation of their labour and catalyst of (re)engagement with scholarly craftsmanship.

Postdigital Duoethnography: An Inquiry into Human-Artificial Intelligence Synergies

“…The slow-paced, contemplative, and respectful Sawasdee approach (Sirisathitkul 2023) to engaging in a discussion seems critical for maintaining postdigital academics' well-being by contributing to a slower and more mindful scholarship (Watermeyer et al 2023). Moving in this direction, the inclusion of AI-produced images in this postdigital duoethnography with chatGPT bears the potential to help readers slow down their reading pace and engage in visual contemplations.…”

“…We also need to avoid a use of AI that will 'intensify performance-based stratification and structurally racist and gendered hierarchies within universities, while also raising important ethical and even litigious questions of responsibility' (Watermeyer et al 2023: 13). Digital society is a choice (Russo 2023), so we need to proactively promote our posthuman technodigital well-being through critical use and integration of AI technologies in knowledge production (Watermeyer et al 2023). There is a need to shift from an autopilot mode of living where we just react to each new technology to a new mode of living in which we reflect about our actions and their implications.…”

GenAI and me: the hidden work of building and maintaining an augmentative partnership

“…The current academic role necessitates being 'always on', while encompassing a broad spectrum of responsibilities from teaching and learning, to research, and administrative work. Amidst these escalating highperformance expectations, coupled with increasing competition and the omnipresent threat of failure [30], the role of an academic may lend itself to needing/wanting to work with GenAI as this offers 'potential relief for academics and a means to offset intensive demands and discover more of a work-based equilibrium' [30, p.1].…”

The ethical implications of using generative chatbots in higher education

“…However, the value of chatbots extends beyond saving time on administrative burdens; rather, they can additionally transform pedagogy (Watermeyer et al, 2023). For instance, an educator may use chatbots to generate case studies for a seminar or provide best practices relating to academic skills.…”