What makes a higher education higher? What makes a university a public good, as is our responsibility according to the White Paper of 1997? Do we indeed nurture critical citizens, as that same policy indicates? If we fail to sufficiently grapple with these questions, we can easily become simply training centres responsible for credentialling potential employees for industry. And failure to grapple with our roles and responsibilities as higher education makes us especially vulnerable to the darker aspects of Generative AI.

In this session, Sioux urges us to revisit the purposes of higher education and to hold these tight as we reflect on how AI is being used in the academy. She briefly considers the multiple ways in which GenAI can enhance teaching and learning, research, and community engagement before looking at how GenAI can constrain these core functions. She reflects on how explicitly claiming our role as a public good nurturing critical citizens can guide our responses to GenAI.