On the Limits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education
Open accessAbstract
The recent hyperbole around artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted on our ability to properly consider the lasting educational implications of this technology. This paper outlines a number critical issues and concerns that need to feature more prominently in future educational discussions around AI. These include: (i) the limited ways in which educational processes and practices can be statistically modelled and calculated; (ii) the ways in which AI technologies risk perpetuating social harms for minoritized students; (iii) the losses incurred through reorganising education to be more ‘machine readable’; and (iv) the ecological and environmental costs of data-intensive and device-intensive forms of AI. The paper concludes with a call for slowing down and recalibrating current discussions around AI and education – paying more attention to issues of power, resistance and the possibility of re-imagining education AI along more equitable and educationally beneficial lines.
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Students may risk bypassing the necessary interpretative work of academic judgment by relying on AI to formulate arguments or critique AI-generated summaries of opposing views.
“Students may risk bypassing the necessary interpretative work of academic judgment by relying on AI to formulate arguments or critique AIgenerated summaries of opposing views.”
From Generative AI and Cognitive Offloading in Higher Education: Implications for Learning, Knowledge Production, and Academic Thinking (2026) · cites this paper as [16]
Cites
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜
Bender, E. M., Gebru, T., McMillan-Major, A., & Shmitchell, S. (2021) · Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency · doi:10.1145/3442188.3445922 · Cited by 6,988 · see citing works
Ableism, technoableism, and future AI
Shew, A. (2020) · IEEE Technology and Society Magazine · doi:10.1109/mts.2020.2967492 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Can artificial intelligence be decolonized?
Adams, R. (2021) · Interdisciplinary Science Reviews · doi:10.1080/03080188.2020.1840225 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
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The AI Assessment Scale (AIAS) in action: A pilot implementation of GenAI supported assessment
Furze, L., Perkins, M., Roe, J., & MacVaugh, J. (2024) · Australasian Journal of Educational Technology · doi:10.14742/ajet.9434 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
“…personalised learning, writing assistance, and research capabilities (Chan & Hu, 2023), critics have highlighted risks, including copyright infringement, labour exploitation, environmental impact, bias, privacy, and the deskilling of both students and educators (Caplan, 2024; Selwyn, 2022, 2024).”
AI Literacy in Teacher Education: Empowering Educators Through Critical Co-Discovery
Dilek, M., Baran, E., & Aleman, E. (2025) · Journal of Teacher Education · doi:10.1177/00224871251325083 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
AI-resistant assessments in higher education: Practical insights from faculty training workshops
Awadallah Alkouk, W., & Khlaif, Z. N. (2024) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2024.1499495 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
GIFT-AI: Damn!.jpg—visual literacy through image-making with generative AI
Källström, K. (2025) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2025.1621207 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Duc, T. M. (2026) · European Journal of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology · doi:10.59324/ejaset.2026.4(3).06 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Selwyn, N.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Selwyn, Neil
- ORCID
- Selwyn, Neil
- Venue
- Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk
- Published
- 2024-01-22
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2387-5739 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4391439498
- Cited by
- 185
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 109 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 15
- FWCI
- 69.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Monash University Research Portal (Monash University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DP240100111)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Artificial Intelligence in Education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Digital Education and Society
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence in education, algorithmic bias, minoritized students, environmental costs of AI, power and resistance, educational equity
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