The Rise of the Algorithmic Author? A Critical Analysis of Large Language Models in Higher Education

This essay examines the emergence of large language models, focusing on ChatGPT, in the academic sphere. While most studies have focused on the tangible outputs produced by LLMs, the potential and the challenges they introduce, this essay proposes a shift in perspective that recognizes LLM not merely as a computational tool but as an "Algorithmic Author"—an entity that both shapes and is shaped by the social, cultural, and political dynamics of the academic field. Inspired by Michel Foucault's concept of the "author-function" (1980) the term "Algorithmic Author" is used to analyse how ChatGPT is discursively constructed and contested within different academic groups. Drawing on preliminary findings from interviews and ethnographic observations in a public research university, the essay identifies three distinct groups—senior management, the center for teaching and learning staff, and young researchers—who frame and construct the algorithmic author as a threat, an opportunity, or an ambivalent space.