AI in Kazakh Universities: Institutions Are Not Ready for the ChatGPT Era
AI in Kazakh universities is rapidly transforming higher education, but many institutions appear unprepared for how quickly such tools are becoming normalized in the academic process. While authorities increasingly urge educators to treat AI as a professional tool for the future workforce, universities continue spending tens of thousands of dollars on systems designed to detect texts generated by ChatGPT and similar AI models. By the spring of 2026, the use of generative AI in Kazakh universities had effectively become a new academic norm. Students now routinely use AI systems to write coursework, dissertations, and analytical papers. However, instead of fundamentally reconsidering how knowledge and competencies are assessed, universities are attempting to fit new technologies into an outdated, control-based educational model. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education has officially rejected the idea of banning generative AI outright. The ministry states that AI usage is acceptable as long as students adhere to principles of academic integrity and transparency. “Conceptually, the Ministry does not advocate for a complete ban on generative neural networks,” the Committee for Higher and Postgraduate Education said in its official position. This approach was formalized through the “Inter-University Standard for the Use of AI,” adopted in 2024. In 2025, authorities further reaffirmed their commitment to integrating AI into the education system, emphasizing that AI tools should be viewed primarily as instruments rather than threats. Universities Spend Tens of Thousands of Dollars on AI Detectors Despite the ministry’s position, universities across Kazakhstan have begun purchasing AI-detection systems. In the spring of 2025, the company Antiplagiat.Kazakhstan introduced an algorithm designed to detect AI-generated text, which state and national universities have subsequently begun to acquire on a large scale. According to Kazakhstan’s public procurement portal, Kazakh National Medical University signed a contract worth approximately $27,000, while Toraighyrov University conducted several procurements totaling around $19,000. Most contracts were awarded through single-source procurement procedures, strengthening the market position of one dominant supplier in the field of academic verification systems. At the same time, AI detectors do not produce definitive results and instead operate on probabilistic models. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Education has separately stated that such tools cannot serve as indisputable proof of academic misconduct. “The development of artificial intelligence requires not a mechanical prohibition of AI, but an improvement of assessment systems,” the ministry noted. [caption id="attachment_49352" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A talk on AI at Al-Farabi University. Image: Joe Luc Barnes[/caption] University Regulations Lag Behind Technological Reality The problem is compounded by outdated university regulations. Many rules and academic policies were written before the mass adoption of generative AI. Documents from Yessenov University and Narxoz University, for example, contain no references to terms such as “AI,” “neural networks,” or “text generation.” Even recently updated regulations often preserve the old logic of evaluation through text originality percentages. In the “Academic Policy of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University for 2025-2026”, AI usage is now formally regulated, yet the university simultaneously retains a requirement that diploma theses maintain a minimum originality level of 75%. This creates a legal contradiction:...
