GENERATIVE AI IN CENTRAL ASIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: INSIGHTS FROM CHATGPT

Abstract

The rapid emergence and development of generative artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models such as ChatGPT, is reshaping higher education globally. However, the impact of generative AI varies across countries and regions. This paper presents a study that adopts a thing ethnography approach, as used in earlier studies of generative AI tools, to understand the challenges and opportunities AI tools present for higher education in Central Asia. Focusing on the region's contextual specifics, this paper offers a spatial perspective on the impact of generative AI on the higher education system in Central Asia. It draws on an interview with a generative AI system to explore its own framing of the potential benefits and limitations of ChatGPT in educational contexts. This approach offers distinctive insights into how AI systems themselves articulate their role in higher education, and how such perceptions may inform future trajectories of AI use in the sector. In doing so, the paper raises important questions about how AI technologies interact with existing educational systems, potentially reinforcing uneven development between and within higher education systems in the Global North and Global South.