AI is everywhere in the media and HE conversations at present, and it’s possibly more embedded already in our personal and professional lives than we are aware.
It’s a testing moment for leadership both in wider society and in higher education. Tech developments and particularly artificial intelligence require leaders who can tolerate uncertainty, accept they are not experts and that they don’t need to be experts in order to lead. We need leaders who, despite the ambiguity and complexity inherent in AI debates, are able to chart a constructive and optimistic routes for staff and students, despite their having very different experiences, skills and expectations of digital change.
Leadership failure in the face of external challenge is common. One such failure is delay, and failure to set a clear direction, in the face of complexity. The Johnson government, via the Covid enquiry, has provided us with the image of a shopping trolley swerving without a plan. The animal kingdom offers images of a frog swimming in the pan of steadily warming water oblivious to its existential danger or the perennial ostrich with its head in the sand. Ignoring AI while waiting to find out what all the fuss is about is an approach we don’t want.
