Surveillance, Tyranny, and Technocratic Colonialism: A Critical Interrogation of Gen-AI Solutionism in Higher Education Curriculum

Richard McInnes

doi:10.14288/ce.v17i2.187244

Surveillance, Tyranny, and Technocratic Colonialism

A Critical Interrogation of Gen-AI Solutionism in Higher Education Curriculum

Authors

Richard McInnes Adelaide University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v17i2.187244

Keywords:

generative artificial intelligence, techno-solutionism, critical realism, critical education

Abstract

The adoption of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI) in higher education curriculum design is often framed as an inevitable step toward efficiency and innovation. In this paper, I employ critical realism to interrogate the ideological and political dimensions of gen-AI adoption, arguing that it represents a form of technocratic colonialism that reinforces neoliberal and surveillance-driven imperatives. By interrogating who benefits from these technologies and whose interests are marginalised, I problematise gen-AI’s role in shaping knowledge production, academic labour, and epistemic hierarchies. Through a critical education lens, I highlight how universities, in their embrace of gen-AI, risk entrenching structures of control, eroding pedagogical autonomy, promoting epistemic dependence, marginalising educator expertise, and privileging dominant knowledge systems while excluding alternative epistemologies. Urging a shift from techno-solutionism to critical engagement, I advocate for resistance to gen-AI’s unchecked integration in curricula, ensuring that educational transformation remains grounded in equity, ethics, and intellectual agency.

Author Biography

Richard McInnes, Adelaide University

Richard M^cInnes is an experienced educational leader and critical scholar-practitioner with over fifteen years of experience across secondary and higher education. Currently, he is a Manager, Education Design in the Learning Enhancement and Innovation Unit at Adelaide University. His publications in the scholarship of teaching and learning occur at the intersection of critical pedagogies, transformative curriculum design, and institutional change. His work interrogates dominant narratives in curriculum, technology, and university practice, focused on equity, agency and diversity.

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Published

2026-05-17

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2026)

Section

Articles

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