AI and higher education: A diffractive reading

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education presents challenges for how the sector should think about research, curriculum work, and pedagogy. In this article, the authors performed a thought experiment to explore concepts and ideas, rather than asserting definitive conclusions, through a diffractive reading of vignettes we produced on AI's introduction into higher education in the domains of research, curriculum, and pedagogy. In preparation, each author independently wrote vignettes on the application of AI in the three domains. We did not access or read each other's vignettes before the diffractive reading, which comprised two phases. First, we constructed diffractive patterns by invigorating lines of connection between/among our three vignettes. Second, we each generated lines of connection between the two vignettes, not our own, on an aspect we had excluded in our own vignettes. Through a diffractive reading exercise, we generated new insights, resulting in a richer understanding of the complex intra-actions between human and non-human actors in higher education. By interrogating AI as a transformative enabler rather than a mere technological advancement, we uncover entanglements of AI with research, curriculum work, and pedagogy. Our diffractive methodology highlights the performativity of AI and the imperative of reconfiguring higher education to embrace complexity, relationality, and ethical response-ability. The article contributes to AI vis-à-vis higher education by providing a posthumanist critique of the affordances of AI, challenging the neoliberal and instrumentalist paradigms that dominate current higher education practices. Additionally, it provides practical insights into the ethical and ecological implications of the application of AI in higher education contexts.