AI and the University – Towards a sociolinguistics of literacy and voice in the age of generative language technology
Name of applicant
Janus Mortensen
Title
Professor
Institution
University of Copenhagen
Amount
DKK 9,889,244
Year
2023
Type of grant
Semper Ardens: Accomplish
What?
Artificial Intelligence has changed – and will continue to transform – the ways we use and think about language. This project explores how AI is affecting social practices related to knowledge production, acquisition, and dissemination in academia, using the university context as a case for developing new theoretical understandings of literacy and voice in the age of generative language technology.
Why?
We are in the early stages of a technological revolution with vast consequences for the way language works as part of social life. It is important to understand how this process affects academic practices, because it has implications for how knowledge is generated, acquired, and shared within and beyond academia – and ultimately for who and what may constitute an authoritative voice of knowledge.
How?
To document the way AI is used as part of academic practices, the project uses linguistic ethnographic case studies of research and education practices within six different areas of academia, supplemented by annual surveys distributed to students and researchers at Danish universities. We use the data to assess the impact of AI on academic practices and progressively build new theoretical models.