A question of academic sovereignty
Generative AI can accelerate research and writing, but it can also shape the language, assumptions and references through which scholars interpret problems. For regions historically positioned at the margins of global knowledge production, this creates a question of academic sovereignty.
The risk is not the tool itself
AI is not inherently a threat to Caribbean academic identity. The threat emerges when convenience becomes dependence and imported systems silently determine what counts as relevant knowledge, authoritative language or legitimate framing.
Epistemic visibility
Caribbean thinkers, archives, dialects and local institutions may be unevenly represented within global training data. Users therefore need the critical literacy to notice absence rather than interpret fluent output as comprehensive truth.
Academic integrity beyond detection
Integrity cannot be reduced to identifying machine-generated text. Institutions must redesign assessment, define acceptable assistance, teach citation and disclosure, and create tasks that reveal the learner’s reasoning.
A constructive response
The answer is neither prohibition nor surrender. It is the development of locally grounded AI literacy, stronger research practice, transparent governance and a culture that values original questions and intellectual contribution.
This work forms part of the wider AI Masters Barbados scholarship programme. For lectures, seminars, institutional discussions or research collaboration, request a session.
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