I argue the future of academic writing cannot be entertained without exploring what role, if any, artificial intelligence will have on academic writing in the years & decades ahead. Almira O. Thunstrom, a doctoral researcher at Sahlgrenska University, wrote an article featured by Scientific American on GPT-3, an artificial-intelligence algorithm, that researched, referenced, & composed an academic research paper. The question is: will the academic writer of the future be reduced to designing a programmable algorithm to negotiate & produce the nitty & gritty prose invested in the structural making of the traditional academic paper? Can artificial intelligence liberate academic writers from more technical & laborious concerns to allow for greater originality turned creativity?
The basis for such curiosity entertains a future transforming academic writing into the assembly of source code for algorithms unique to individual research area. In this future, academics would no longer write long, laborious, & drawn-out research papers; rather, their primary focus would be directed to designing theses, research papers, & case studies by designing sub-algorithms using a primary algorithmic source code. The approach is simple: come up with the idea & the “primary algorithmic operator” will do the rest of the work for you. This hypothetical academic would review what the algorithm produced allowing for topical expansion & editing as needed. One cannot resist entertaining the ethical costs of such a radical transformation to the development of “original academic prose” in the ivory tower. Can the academic writer take full credit for their work without referencing the algorithmic operator?
This seems most suggestive of what will happen when that much forecasted technological singularity meets academia, but is such an outcome inevitable let alone desirable? Efficiency in the deliverance of academic discourse is not indicative of personability; on the contrary, it may prove to have the opposite effect. We are already witnessing the beginning of such transformations with programs like Microsoft Word & Grammarly designed to screen for effectiveness & clarity in our writing.
A great deal to consider indeed…