ABSTRACT
Academic labour is realised in specific forms in the capitalist university, as abstract and concrete labour. This is the primary source of production of the ‘commodity stock’ in universities which makes the final ‘commodity’ that is exchanged for money. Working practices in all industries are being influenced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in terms of technologies and organisational forms. The applications of AI in digital manufacturing industries are being transferred to working practices in Higher Education (HE). AI enables universities to synthesise, compare, and optimise work within, and between, institutions. AI subsumes academic labour in various forms (formal, real, hybrid, and ideal subsumption). It is being used by capitalist universities to attempt to privatise and accumulate what has been seen as the ‘social brain’ or ‘general intellect’ of intellectual labour. However, such enclosures are consistently, and inevitably, resisted by academic workers.
