The Invisible Hand of AI: How Generative Models Are Shaping Knowledge Production and Citation Cultures in Higher Education

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-618-0_26How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI); Higher Education; Research Ecosystems; Knowledge Production; Citation Cultures; Academic Visibility; Epistemic Integrity; Algorithmic Mediation; Scholarly Communication; Authorship and Originality

Abstract

In a very short period of time, generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have become a part of academic works, and the way scholars search for, summarize, and create knowledge has been drastically changed by them. The efficiency of this one is, however, hiding a major revolution: AI’s dominant, often non-visible, influence on what is known, cited, and valued in academia. This article describes the impact of AI on research in terms of epistemology and culture by showing that the usage of text-generation and summarizing tools has influenced the most to the academic discourses, citation behavior, and knowledge visibility. It leverages the knowledge production theories of Foucault, Latour, Bourdieu, and other scholars together with the recent work on algorithmic bias.

The paper considers generative AI as a new epistemic player, or a vibe that subtly changes intellectual hierarchies and standardizes the scholarly voices, without being noticed. By combining various methods, such as discourse analysis, citation mapping, and interviews with researchers, the study reveals that the aid of AI in research can help to deepen the existing standard of practices in which the different voices of the minority are ignored. In the final part, it emphasizes the necessity of ethical knowledge openness at the time when algorithms quietly determine what should be considered knowledge.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nandini Kumar
AU  - V. Bhuvaneswari
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/16
TI  - The Invisible Hand of AI: How Generative Models Are Shaping Knowledge Production and Citation Cultures in Higher Education
BT  - Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Library & Technology on “Artificial Intelligence and Humanities in Library and Education 4.0 (AIHLE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 337
EP  - 357
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-618-0_26
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-618-0_26
ID  - Kumar2026
ER  -