Beyond Plagiarism: Deconstructing Authorship and Originality in Higher Education in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33255/2591/2511Keywords:
generative artificial intelligence , higher education , authorship, originality, deconstructionAbstract
The irruption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has triggered a crisis in higher education assessment paradigms, traditionally based on the binary distinction between original production and plagiarism. This article argues that GAI is not the cause of this crisis, but its accelerator, exposing the already fictitious nature of "original authorship" inherited from Romanticism. Using a theoretical framework based on Jacques Derrida's deconstruction, specifically the concept of pharmakon and the critique of binary oppositions (original/copy, human/tool), this paper analyzes how GAI destabilizes notions of authorship by operating as a sociotechnical assemblage with the student. The fictions of Jorge Luis Borges—particularly "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" and "Funes the Memorious"—are employed not as metaphors, but as analytical tools to conceptually dissociate memory (the AI's domain) from understanding (the human task), and the textual product (automatable) from intention (the new locus of authorship). We contend that GAI compels pedagogy to move beyond a logic of prohibition (focused on plagiarism) toward a pedagogy of intentionality. Finally, we propose a shift in assessment: from valuing the textual product to valuing the process of inquiry formulation (prompting), critical curation, and human augmentation that the student brings to the generated text.
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