University bans on AI-assisted marking may overlook the economic reality of underpaid teaching assistants, writes Michael Buehler (SOAS University of London). In the UK, where decades of protests over unpaid labour and low marking tariffs have brought little change, Buehler argues that AI offers TAs a tempting—if prohibited—solution. It can dramatically cut marking time from weeks to minutes, effectively giving TAs a de facto raise. Buehler suggests that for underpaid TAs, resisting AI may take “uncommon virtue” unless universities are willing to address systemic underpayment. “If university managers want human-centred institutions, they must be willing to fund the labour that human-centred education requires,” he writes.
Times Higher Education
