Robot-proof : higher education in the age of artificial intelligence [Book Review]

Abstract

If a book can ever accomplish in leaving a reader with a lingering aftertaste, then Aoun’s book is the one. Albeit offering a bittersweet flavour, this gem of a book provides a vivid portrayal of the calm before the storm. It is a known fact that evolution is characterised by extinction. Invariably this book alludes to an approaching Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven cultural evolution that, as I am writing, is unwrapping itself and which in the foreseeable future will unleash and batter our beliefs in Higher Education (HE) with full force. Originally, I assumed that this book was directed to universities, academics and educational policy makers. Now I believe that it is a valid eyeopener to anyone interested in surviving in style in the rapidly developing digital reality. This book offers a valid challenge to the status quo and fragile sense of false security that HE has wrapped itself in but which certainly must change if universities and other HE institutes are to remain relevant both in the immediate and long-term future.