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Artificial Intelligence is transforming work, politics and culture in unprecedented ways, despite concerns about education, economies and the environment. Universities are at the frontlines and academics are confronted daily by AI's impact on teaching, research and institutional life. Artificial Universities situates the rise of AI within its larger cultural context, tracing its origins in myth, fiction and computational history, and drawing on speculative design, campus novels and critical theory to explore urgent questions. 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? Combining historical analysis and experimental methods using AI itself, chapters explore artificial personas and design fiction generators. 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 Artificial book reviews discuss campus novels where writing is obsolete and student work is evaluated through prompt logs.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 reflect 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.
List of contents
Chapter 1, Introduction: Dark Materials Chapter 2, Speculative Engines: research fiction and story shapes Chapter 3, Navigating Artificial Spaces Chapter 4, Lagadia: an Augmented design fiction Chapter 5, Ideas of the University: One Hundred Years of Campus fiction Chapter 6, The MetaCampus Archive Chapter 7, Artificial Institutions
About the author
Mark Blythe is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Northumbria University. He has worked in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) for more than two decades, including in the department of Psychology and Computer Design at the University York. His research addresses the social and psychological impact of new and emerging technologies through design ethnography and design fiction. He is co-editor of Funology (2e, 2018) and Critical Theory and Interaction Design (2018).
