Feeling depressed about the direction academia was going, when I reached 60 I refused the university’s offer of a contract extension and retired. I moved upcountry and quickly lost touch with most of my old colleagues.
Reviewing for the journal
While I had little idea about what was happening in my old faculty, as a favour to Ajarn Thep I remained on the editorial board of our journal and regularly reviewed articles. Initially, the articles were reasonably interesting to read, but over time the ones I received became more predictable and pointless. It seemed that AI as an unnamed lead author was rearing its ugly head.
I contacted Ajarn Thep about my concerns. He explained that he was still using the same AI screening process since the faculty still refused to fund sufficient editorial assistants. The problem was that a few AI-generated papers slipped through the screening process and then reviewers didn’t reject them since it’s difficult to reject an article simply because it’s dull. This had polluted the database of accepted papers the AI was using as the basis for screening articles. In a vicious circle, more AI-generated papers passed the screening, got published and joined the database, leading to even more passing. Ajarn Thep estimated that, if this trend continued, in 3 years the journal would only be publishing AI-generated papers and he didn’t know what to do. I wanted to help, but, first, I didn’t know what the situation in the faculty really was, and, second, I was retired.
Back to the faculty
I hadn’t been back to the university for 3 years, but, when I heard that 3 of my old colleagues, all also old students of mine, were retiring, I was persuaded to go to the retirement party.
I sat down with the soon-to-be retirees, Ajarn Toey, Ajarn Nat and Ajarn Lek. Looking around, I noticed there were not many new faces. I asked why.
Ajarn Toey explained, “You remember Ajarn Pim, the old Associate Dean for Planning. Well, she became Dean. She’s really taken the AI regulations to the extreme. Basically, she pretty much refuses to employ anyone new as she believes everything can be done by AI.”
“I wish she would replace herself”, Ajarn Nat added morosely.
“Yes, even though 3 of us are retiring and the faculty already has several vacant posts, Ajarn Pim has only authorised one new teacher position to replace us.”
I couldn’t see how this would work. “But that must mean that teaching loads are horrendous.”
“Not really. Only about a third of courses are taught by teachers now. Some are fully run by AI and others are outsourced to Coursera.”
“Which mean more AI”, Ajarn Lek chimed in.
“But surely that’s bad for student learning.”
“It’s worse than you think. Most of the students use AI to complete all of the tasks, and then they get As.” Ajarn Toey grimaced.
“And those students who really try and don’t rely on AI are the only ones who don’t get As. We’re penalising students for trying to learn,” added Ajarn Nat.
“Surely someone must have tried to change this.”
Ajarn Nat looked frustrated. “Well, we tried. But in the meeting, Ajarn Noi argued that students using AI was good since it reflects how they will use English in the real world, so it’s a better way of seeing how good the students really are.”
Ajarn Lek chimed in again, “Another case of measurement taking precedence over learning.”
I was curious. “So what’s been happening with Ajarn Noi?”
“Oh, she’s now got your old job. She’s Associate Dean for Research. She’s also become one of the top 10 most published teachers in the university so she’s being groomed for higher things.”
“Last month, she ran an online workshop for all university staff and postgrads on using AI to support research. She promoted all these dubious practices. You know, getting AI to design instruments, to identify themes in data without human input, and to write the whole article. A lot of it was how to get around journal regulations, using humanising tools, checking there’s no fake citations, stuff like that.”
“What’s more, over 400 people joined the workshop and the response was really positive. On social media she’s even being championed as a hero of Thai research enabling Thais to compete with native speakers on a level playing field.”
It was all too depressing. With the 3 ajarns retiring, there would be almost no-one left to fight against the infiltration of AI. I would never visit the university again. It was time to leave academia for good.
THE END
To reiterate yet again, this is a work of fiction. There is no Ajarn Noi, our journal uses human screening, we have funding for employing humans, the Dean wouldn’t prioritise face over integrity, and all courses are taught by human teachers. Oh, and I have accepted a contract extension to work beyond 60 because my faculty is an enjoyable place to work.
In reality, I’m not anti-AI. For these blogs, all the pictures are AI-generated and I have used ChatGPT to help recover a few tip-of-the-tongue words. But, as a Grumpy Old Academic, I’m contractually obliged to write dystopias. I’m sure all the things I’ve imagined in this series of blogs are happening somewhere, but hopefully not all in the same institution. To repeat a cliché, AI has great potential for good and evil. It’s up to us to prevent AI-driven academic dystopias from becoming reality.
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