Human Agency and Voice in the Shadow of Superintelligence
Location
Universal Center
Start Date
30-5-2025 11:45 AM
End Date
30-5-2025 12:45 PM
Description
This presentation begins by confronting the threat of artificial superintelligence (ASI) to human agency, authorship, and writing studies. If ASI—an autonomous intellect generating breakthroughs at a pace and scale beyond our comprehension—can produce knowledge, solutions, and creative works in the blink of an eye, will humans offload their thinking, their cognitive development, to machines? Will we stop listening to our felt sense, our inner speech, when composing and trust instead the normal discourse dispatched by algorithms, thereby losing our voices, our identities? To remain relevant, Moxley argues writing studies -- and higher education in general -- needs to (1) clarify the value of both human-authored works and human-AI written works and (2) reconceptualize authorship, academic integrity, and composing processes. Moxley begins the presentation by historicizing the development of SAI. Then invoking Peter Elbow, he plays “the doubting game,” reviewing research and theory informing The Resistance Movement--the argument that higher education should reject GenAI in classrooms. Next, Moxley, invokes “the believing game.” Based on his autoethnographic research, he illustrates ways GenAI can facilitate human agency, voice, and creativity. For instance, he suggests a remediated composing processes should include cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal strategies for using GenAI a thought partner, Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Composition Assistant, Designer, Editor, Citation Assistant, or Publishing Assistant
Recommended Citation
Moxley, Joseph, "Human Agency and Voice in the Shadow of Superintelligence" (2025). Teaching and Learning with AI Conference Presentations. 39.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/teachwithai/2025/friday/39
Human Agency and Voice in the Shadow of Superintelligence
Universal Center
This presentation begins by confronting the threat of artificial superintelligence (ASI) to human agency, authorship, and writing studies. If ASI—an autonomous intellect generating breakthroughs at a pace and scale beyond our comprehension—can produce knowledge, solutions, and creative works in the blink of an eye, will humans offload their thinking, their cognitive development, to machines? Will we stop listening to our felt sense, our inner speech, when composing and trust instead the normal discourse dispatched by algorithms, thereby losing our voices, our identities? To remain relevant, Moxley argues writing studies -- and higher education in general -- needs to (1) clarify the value of both human-authored works and human-AI written works and (2) reconceptualize authorship, academic integrity, and composing processes. Moxley begins the presentation by historicizing the development of SAI. Then invoking Peter Elbow, he plays “the doubting game,” reviewing research and theory informing The Resistance Movement--the argument that higher education should reject GenAI in classrooms. Next, Moxley, invokes “the believing game.” Based on his autoethnographic research, he illustrates ways GenAI can facilitate human agency, voice, and creativity. For instance, he suggests a remediated composing processes should include cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal strategies for using GenAI a thought partner, Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Composition Assistant, Designer, Editor, Citation Assistant, or Publishing Assistant
