Artificial intelligence (AI) is capable not just of disrupting higher education, but of blowing it apart. The march of the smart machines is already well advanced. AI can easily pass standardised tests such as the Graduate Management Admission Test and the Graduate Record Examination required by graduate schools. AI received a 3.34 grade point average in a Harvard freshman course and a B grade on the final exam of a typical core Wharton Business School MBA (master of business administration) course.

What can be done to avoid a future in which AI institutionalises cheating and robs education of any real content? This question is stirring an anxious debate in the university world, not least in the United States, a country that has long been a pacemaker in higher education and technology, but one that is losing confidence in its ability to combine equity with excellence.