Teaching in Higher Ed Peak Higher Ed: AI’s Possible Futures with Bryan Alexander
Jan 8, 2026
Bryan Alexander, a renowned futurist and author known for his insights on higher education, dives into the transformative impact of AI on academia. He discusses the delicate balance between the potential of AI, likening it to a child needing guidance, and its economic risks, warning of possible bubbles. Alexander also addresses the need for adaptive teaching practices in light of AI's omnipresence among students. With a mix of utopian and dystopian perspectives, he encourages educators to rethink assessment and pedagogy for a rapidly evolving landscape.
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Episode notes
Protect Learning And Labor When Adopting AI
- Guard against replacing staff and faculty reflexively; assess net employment and pedagogical impact.
- Preserve beneficial struggle in learning rather than outsourcing thinking to AI.
Bias And Environmental Costs Are Central
- AI systems can re-inscribe biases across language, geography, race, and ideology via their training sets.
- Climate and resource costs of LLMs (energy, water) create external harms beyond campus boundaries.
Participant Wanted Prescriptive Guidance
- A workshop participant expected the presenter to tell her exactly what to do and felt disappointed when invited to choose her own action.
- The exercise asked each person to commit to one small, concrete action to move forward.
