THE ETHNOGRAPHIC AI: EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF ACADEMIC WRITING WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

As artificial intelligence (AI) tools continue to advance at an unprecedented pace, their impact on higher education and academic writing is becoming increasingly profound.This paper presents an auto-ethnographic exploration of the integration of AI tools in academic text production.Drawing inspiration from Carolyn Ellis's seminal work on autoethnography, the study employs a self-reflective approach to examine the author's experiences with a diverse array of AI tools for research and academic writing.The title alludes to the title of Ellis's key publication "The Ethnographic I" while also pointing to the new territory of future academic writing processes with strong assistance of AI tools.The investigation strives to unpack various aspects of AI as a transformative factor in academic text production.It explores the usage of AI tools in different phases of writing academic texts.In doing so, it highlights affordances and limitations of exemplary AI tools for academic writing.Furthermore, the investigation explores ethical implications of AI-assisted academic writing, including issues of authorship, academic integrity and responsible use of AI.It also discusses the key findings in terms of consequences for introducing students to academic writing.