RIPPLE Panel Discussion: The Politics of GenAI

Our next RIPPLE session will be an online panel discussion on the politics of generative AI (GenAI) and its place within higher education (HE).

In this session, we are not looking to discuss university policy or the more practical concerns surrounding the use of GenAI in teaching, learning or assessment, but rather to hold open a space to discuss this development critically in relation to wider social and ecological justice issues and any political (or even planetary) concerns we might have.

We will consider what social, political and ecological justice issues may be involved with the use of GenAI (see, for instance, this piece in Time), and discuss the ways in which GenAI might affect knowledge production and critical thinking, or how critical skills are taught at university. In so doing, we will consider how the use of GenAI in HE might reproduce certain biases and thus perpetuate (or, conversely, help address) various, intersecting inequalities at both local and global scales. 

The format will be a panel discussion with opening thoughts from speakers from across the university followed by more general discussion among the group.