AI surveillance in education: unpacking ethical dilemmas and the snake-oil promises of AI-infused technosolutionism

Abstract

This chapter examines the ethical implications of the increasing integration of AI surveillance technologies within educational settings, including proctoring software, classroom monitoring tools, and behavioral analytics. The swarm approach employed reflects diverse perspectives on this complex issue. It unpacks how AI surveillance reduces multifaceted students and faculty to data points, disproportionately targeting marginalized learners and misreading neurodivergent behaviors. The chapter critiques the snake's oil sales pitch of AI-infused technosolutionist discourse and foregrounds concerns regarding the erosion of student and lecturer autonomy, the alteration of student-lecturer relationships and the erosion of trust, the normalization of surveillance, and the amplification of existing inequalities and biases through algorithmic processes. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the need for educators to foster a learning environment that amplifies human potential