Recalibrating academic expertise in the age of generative AI

The integration of generative AI (GenAI) into academic workflows represents a fundamental shift in scientific practice. While these tools can amplify productivity, they risk eroding the cognitive foundations of expertise by simulating the very tasks through which scientific competence is developed, from synthesis to experimental design to writing. Uncritical reliance can lead to skill atrophy and AI complacency. We propose a framework of essential AI meta-skills: strategic direction, critical discernment, and systematic calibration. These constitute a new form of scientific literacy that builds on traditional critical thinking. Through domain-specific examples and a pedagogical model based on situated learning, we show how these meta-skills can be cultivated to ensure that researchers, particularly trainees, maintain intellectual autonomy. Without deliberate cultivation of these meta-skills, we risk creating the first generation of researchers who serve their tools rather than direct them.