On May 8, 2025, the Futures Initiative (FI) and HASTAC co-hosted a timely and provocative event: AI and the Future of Higher Education. Held as part of the Futures Initiative’s 10th anniversary celebration, the conversation brought together two visionary thinkers—Alondra Nelson (Institute for Advanced Study and Center for American Progress) and FI Founder Cathy N. Davidson—to explore how generative artificial intelligence can reshape the academic landscape. The event was moderated by HASTAC Area Directors Dr. Jade E. Davis and Dr. Kevin Healy.
As generative AI tools become increasingly integrated into educational settings, the discussion offered a critical space to reflect on what these technologies mean—not just for teaching and learning, but for justice, participation, and the broader mission of higher education.
Rethinking Technological Narratives
Cathy Davidson began by placing current anxieties about AI within a historical context. From autocorrect to spellcheck to search engines, she reminded us that AI has been quietly embedded in our daily lives for decades. What’s different now, she emphasized, is the speed, visibility, and commercial hype surrounding tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI models.
Rather than treat AI as either a miracle solution or an existential threat, Davidson urged educators to think beyond binary narratives. She called attention to the danger of outsourcing intellectual labor under the illusion of “efficiency”—arguing that education’s value lies in the processes of questioning, exploring, and making meaning, not in the shortcuts offered by machine-generated answers.
“I’ve always resisted technological determinism—the idea that simply putting a new tool in the classroom will magically fix inequality. It won’t. We have to do the real work.”
Cathy N. Davidson
The Politics of Infrastructure and Access
Alondra Nelson extended the conversation by emphasizing the structural implications of AI. While she agreed that AI tools offer creative potential, she highlighted how they are also shaped by asymmetries of power. Who gets to design these systems? Whose data is used? Who is being watched, and who benefits?
Nelson pointed to the persistent risks of surveillance and bias, especially when AI tools are introduced into educational environments without sufficient attention to ethical design and community accountability. She noted that the same systems that promise personalization can also encode and perpetuate inequality—especially when deployed at scale and without critical oversight.
“Educators and students must be at the center of the decision-making about how AI is integrated into teaching and learning. Without their voices, these systems will deepen existing inequalities.”
Alonda Nelson
Centering Students and Communities
Both Davidson and Nelson agreed that the future of AI in education must center the people most impacted by it: students and educators. They challenged the audience to move beyond narratives of technological inevitability and instead envision a future where human agency, creativity, and ethics remain central.
This includes pushing for more open, transparent, and inclusive technological infrastructures—such as those found in open-source communities—as well as reimagining curricula that teach students not only how to use AI, but how to understand and challenge it.
Looking Ahead
The event underscored that AI is not simply a tool; it is a terrain of struggle—a site where social values, economic interests, and pedagogical practices collide. The conversation marked a fitting tribute to the Futures Initiative’s decade of transformative work and an invitation to continue that work with urgency, imagination, and care.
At a time when the stakes of automation, datafication, and digital control are higher than ever, AI and the Future of Higher Education reminded us that the classroom can—and must—remain a site of critical inquiry, collective resistance, and radical possibility.