Artificial Universities

Artificial intelligence is transforming work, politics and culture at an unprecedented rate. Universities are at the frontlines of change and academics are confronted daily by AI’s impact on teaching, research and institutional life. This book situates the rise of AI within its larger cultural context, tracing its origins in myth, fiction and computational history. It explores urgent questions around the impact of AI on scholarship and ideas of the university. What happens to universities when AI outperforms humans in writing and most other tasks? What happens to design when the tools are smarter than the users?

The book explores a series of design fictions using AI itself as a speculative material. These include a metaversity, where students attend as avatars and academics are disciplined by algorithmic tribunals. Artificial book reviews discuss campus novels where writing is obsolete, and student work is evaluated through prompt logs. A dark academia gothic novel pictures an “undead institution” enacting empty rituals long after their functional and symbolic roles have disappeared. Imaginary educational reviews report on the transformative uses of GenAI in design schools around the world, from the RCA in London, where irony continues to thrive but nobody knows what to do with it, to the Dubai Pavilion of the Possible, where pleasure labs are used as therapeutic containment zones. These provocative fictions use AI materials in a creative and playful manner to speculate on real issues. The book also explores ways that AI bias can be addressed, not through Big Tech “guard rails” but by critically shaping outputs.

With a unique blend of historical analysis and experimental methods, this book examines the ways in which generative AI may support or undermine different ideas of the university. It will be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of universities and the repercussions of AI. Maybe.