GenAI as a runaway object in higher education: A socio-cultural view on AI-influenced academic practice in mathematics

This study explores how generative AI (GenAI) technologies are reshaping research and teaching practices at the university level. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 1987), we examine the interrelated activity systems of teaching and research through the lens of GenAI as a “runaway object”, a concept describing technologies that evolve unpredictably, disrupt boundaries, and reconfigure roles, tools, and epistemic norms. Based on qualitative data from ten academics in a mathematics department at a Swedish university, the analysis identifies five dominant themes that characterize emerging changes across both activity systems: boundary fluidity, shifting objects, epistemic concerns, distributed innovation, and reconfigured roles. The findings suggest that GenAI is beginning to influence how academic work is carried out and evaluated. Adoption was described by participants as unfolding largely through informal and distributed processes, often associated with student use and peer networks, and extending across both teaching and research. These developments contribute to the blurring of established boundaries and to shifts in how academics orient their work. By drawing on the concept of a runaway object, the study highlights early-stage dynamics that are consistent with such a perspective. In doing so, it demonstrates the analytical value of this lens for examining how GenAI is being negotiated within mathematics teaching and research in higher education.