The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

James Lipuma, Cristo Leon

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents higher education with both transformative potential and profound risk. While AI-tools can personalize learning and enhance collaboration, they also threaten to erode critical thinking, intellectual independence, and the reflective depth of human inquiry. This conceptual analysis applies transdisciplinary communication (TDC) and educational psychology frameworks to examine how AI integration influences learning, teaching, and institutional practices. Findings highlight that AI-tools can strengthen collaboration, automate administrative tasks, and promote inclusivity across languages and disciplines. However, overreliance on automation risks reducing empathy, ethical reasoning, and creativity. The study identifies interpretation, judgment, and contextual understanding as human dimensions that remain non-delegable in AI-supported education. Higher education must move from viewing AI as a replacement for cognition to treating it as a catalyst for transformative learning. Embedding human-in-the-loop practices and metacognitive reflection ensures that AI amplifies inquiry rather than undermines it. The enduring task is to balance innovation with discernment, preserving education's human purpose while guiding AI's integration ethically and intelligently.

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