AI & Assessment As a Wicked Problem

Since late 2022, higher education institutions everywhere have faced the wicked problem of how to respond to the rapid rise of GenAI in classrooms.GenAI is a rapidly advancing technology.It also comes with a lot of confusion."AI" is not a single technology or capacity.Not only do people use the term quite loosely, meaning different things in different contexts, but the underlying ecological layers and networked entanglements of any AI-embedded functionality add complexity, which is also operationalized differently in specific situations.Thus, when we think of 'the AI problem' we may assume others understand what we mean, but in reality we're talking about completely different problems.There are also many (many!) stakeholders.Some, like Big Tech, want a (financial) piece of the higher ed game.Others, like information technology administrators at central levels, want to ensure information security.University administrators, course planners, teachers, and students all have different stakes.