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Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia

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Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously to a) counter the technology industry's marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Published September 5, 2025 | Version v1 Preprint Open Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia Authors/Creators Guest, Olivia Suarez, Marcela Müller, Barbara van Meerkerk, Edwin Oude Groote Beverborg, Arnoud de Haan, Ronald Reyes Elizondo, Andrea Blokpoel, Mark Scharfenberg, Natalia Kleinherenbrink, Annelies Camerino, Ileana Woensdregt, Marieke Monett, Dagmar Brown, Jed Avraamidou, Lucy Alenda-Demoutiez, Juliette Hermans, Felienne van Rooij, Iris Description Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users - in past centuri

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