Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
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We also go through many arguments that can be used as counters to typical false frames forced upon us, such as:
1. the powerful nonsense that we as experts know nothing
(Section 3.1 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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2. the strange but often repeated cultish mantra that we need to "embrace the future" — this is so bizarre given, e.g. how destructive industry forces have proven to be in science, from petroleum to tobacco to pharmaceutical companies.
(Section 3.2 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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3. the obsession with denying and rewriting history, pretending AI only appeared in the last 3 years or that it has no history before the last few decades, etc.
(Section 3.3 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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4. the disregard for the corrosive power of anthropomorphism, which is taken advantage of by industry to sell & steal our data, in the base case scenario, and in the worst to abuse and push vulnerable groups to dependance and worse.
(Section 3.4 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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5. the nonsense refrain that somehow everybody — every one of our students — is cheating now and we need to police them more and more.
(Section 3.5 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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6. the extremely unhinged series of claims that without training them on how to be users of such systems that we somehow fail as teachers — truly ludicrous, utterly bizarre, and in fact directly contradicts other industry selling points.
(Section 3.6 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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7. the kinda appealing, but substantively indefensible, idea that somehow AI is different to other technology, like calculators, in a pedagogical context — but we totally ban a great deal of technology in the classroom.
(Section 3.7 here https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099)
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We end on "Machine Yearning for a Better Present" because why can't we dream? Why accept that universities are not places of learning? Nothing, except industry and their paid shills amongst us, force us to accept this & this force is not one of reason, but one of regressive values & profit.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099
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Also very important ❣️
HUGE thank you to all my co-authors @Iris @Felienne @rdehaan @jedbrown @mariekewoe; full list here for those not on mastodon: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17065099 — sorry if I did not tag anybody! 11/n
Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously to a) counter the technology industry's marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues.
@Iris @Felienne @rdehaan @jedbrown @mariekewoe Oh, and of course let me replug this https://openletter.earth/open-letter-stop-the-uncritical-adoption-of-ai-technologies-in-academia-b65bba1e?limit=0
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sigh*... where is Knuth cracker when we need him?
HT all team positioning, plus with such huge editorial efforts incorporating historical quotes within your discourse.
Out of academia big terms cliches, written with didactical style, clear an joyful to read!
ps: At first, ELIZA big font size in circles diagram let me bit confused, but then re-thinking it instead of software technology, but in regards of anthropomorphism, yeah oldie still powerfully tricking humans..
Grant_H
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
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