Executive Summary

Higher academia has undergone a significant transformation due to the emergence of AI

technology and large language models. This 180-degree turn in higher education will set in

motion major transformations, including new teaching methods and automated study systems.

The AI-driven world presents universities with a dilemma: it offers opportunities to enhance

knowledge accessibility and accelerate research processes, while also posing risks to critical

thinking. The paradox that universities face includes expanding access to knowledge alongside

widening educational inequality, the consolidation of power within private entities, and the

exploitation of resources.

To explore this significant topic, I interviewed six professors who are scholars and practitioners

across public policy, technology, education, and political science. I qualitatively coded their

interviews to form 7 major themes. I interviewed Ron Hayduk, Dr. Andres Fortino, Thomas

Blaylock, Steven Goss, Domingo Morel, and Cyril Ghosh, and this paper investigates how AI is

shaping academia from a theoretical, practical, and futuristic lens. Through the thematic

qualitative analysis, these experts do not believe that AI will replace higher education. They

argue that AI can be integrated across educational institutions to strengthen the mission of

education. However, this integration will involve restructuring academic institutions to shift

their focus from churning out and delivering information and knowledge to cultivating

meaning-making and enhancing critical thinking through a mix of AI and human knowledge

systems. Left unregulated, AI is likely to exacerbate global inequality and undermine democratic

capacity, making the mission of institutions more urgent: redefining learning, research, and

control.

Thesis: Higher education will not be adversely affected by AI, but AI's effects will lead to a

restructuring of the epistemic purpose of education. Therefore, the purpose of policymaking

will be to redesign educational structures to integrate AI without deepening existing

socioeconomic inequalities.

By Sehej Sethi

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