Generative AI and education in the information fields: a futures workshop report

Purpose This paper aims to detail collectively identified emerging needs around genAI, its current impact and future role within the information fields and higher education from a workshop held at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Conference. The goal of the workshop was to conceptualize possible futures and to grapple with how faculty ought to respond to, or even build, these futures to improve information science education in the years to come. Design/methodology/approach The report was developed from day-long, structured conversations among participants at a Futures Workshop at the 2024 Annual Meeting of ASIS&T. The sections outlining the primary overarching themes and findings from the workshop were written by teams of authors identified at the workshop, and developed afterwards through a collaborative writing process. Findings Participants identified four grand-challenges: policy and ethics, including the need for holistic survey and evaluation of institutional AI policies paired with outcomes-based evaluation; political economies, and the necessity of tracing the changing political economy of knowledge production in the context of education; educational outcomes and practice, including the importance of adapting information science education and introducing new or revised pedagogical practices during a period of technological transition; and the potential for exacerbating inequalities in access, outcomes and power, particularly among students. Originality/value This report aims to detail the nature of these grand challenges to encourage those in the academic community to continue this work along the dimensions of research, policy engagement (nationally or locally), ongoing dialogue with colleagues and both descriptive and normative evaluations of the impact of AI in the information professions.