Jasmin Cowin

Proceedings of the 19th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics: IMSCI 2025, pp. 102-107 (2025); https://doi.org/10.54808/IMSCI2025.01.102

Jasmin Cowin
Rockefeller Institute of Government, Albany, New York, United States

Cite this paper as:
Cowin, J. (2025). Reflexivity as a Compass: The European AI Act and Its Implications for U.S. Higher Education Institutions. In N. Callaos, J. Horne, B. Sánchez, M. Savoie (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics: IMSCI 2025, pp. 102-107. International Institute of Informatics and Cybernetics. https://doi.org/10.54808/IMSCI2025.01.102

This narrative analysis explores how the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) holds the potential to shape institutional discourse of U.S. higher education. As artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in university operations, from admissions and instruction to monitoring and assessment, it raises urgent questions about institutional purpose, power, and accountability. Drawing on Kantian ethics, the analysis highlights the tension between external regulatory structures and internal moral reasoning. The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689), with its risk-based classification of AI systems and its extraterritorial provisions, introduces binding obligations for transparency, oversight, and ethical alignment in educational applications. These obligations challenge existing norms of voluntary governance in U.S. academia and signal a shift toward anticipatory and structured forms of technological oversight. Within this landscape, reflexivity is positioned not as a rhetorical gesture but as a necessary institutional capacity. It refers to the ongoing process of self-examination that engages with embedded assumptions, power dynamics, and the normative dimensions of algorithmic systems. This analysis argues that reflexivity must guide institutional responses to AI governance if universities are to align technological adoption with their academic values and global responsibilities.