How Can Higher Education Survive Transformative AI ?

Higher education is facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty about the impacts of AI. The sector must, therefore, resist the temptation to merely react to technological developments and instead work proactively to explore possible futures for transformative AI to ensure students and society are prepared for them. This chapter aims to stimulate discussions about how to develop strategies for such proactive engagement by reviewing current assessments of transformative AI and its possible impacts, and presenting an abridged set of five scenarios for the sector over the next decade. They include futures in which higher education is dominated by slow erosion, uncritical adoption, engaged development, principled resistance, or reflective adaptation in the face of transformative AI. The chapter offers recommendations based on the research for how higher education can best shape this transformative future, focusing on the need for collaboration, human control, attention to core social missions, clear communication, and ongoing curiosity.