Cut the bullshit: why GenAI systems are neither collaborators nor tutors

Abstract

The rapid development of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies has led to widespread endorsement of GenAI systems serving as a ‘personal tutor’ and learning ‘collaborator’ in higher education. However, because GenAI outputs are prone to ‘hallucinations,’ it has been suggested that students take responsibility for the accuracy of GenAI contributions to their learning. We rehabilitate Plato’s scepticism regarding writing and draw on Harry Frankfurt’s analysis of ‘bullshit’ to demonstrate that GenAI systems are constitutively epistemically irresponsible. We argue that the expectation on tertiary students to assume responsibility for their so-called ‘tutors’ and ‘collaborators’ is pedagogically perverse, amounting to a demand that students take sole responsibility for the accuracy of claims they are not able to properly assess. Moreover, to the extent that GenAI teaching systems replace students’ interaction with human teachers, it will be increasingly difficult for students to develop the skills and motivation to hold GenAI outputs to disciplinary standards.