Changing Higher Ed

E314 - AI in Higher Education: Bias, Procurement, and Human Oversight

Published: June 2, 2026

Duration: 38:01

At sixteen, with straight A's in math and science, Dr. Karen Panetta's school career assessment told her to sell makeup or be a cook. A male friend with lower scores got engineer or politician. No AI was involved. Just a rules-based system applying gender and biographical filters to two teenagers. That same logic now sits inside AI tools landing in admissions offices and HR systems across higher ed, with one critical difference: AI does not eliminate human bias, it removes the human accountability that used to make bias correctable.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® p...