L’intelligenza Artificiale e l’Educazione. Appunti per una sociologia pubblica

Artificial Intelligence is the new hype in the public debate on education. As already happened with other technologies in the past, we assist to the proliferation of techno-solutionist discourses which attribute to AI the power to revolutionise education, for the better or for the worst. In this chapter, using the lenses of the sociology of ed- ucation, I will discuss in detail the importance of escaping from any techno-solutionist temptation and attributing a renewed centrality to the social life and the ontological politics of AIED in the public debate on education. This means, in the perspective advocated here, to take seriously the difference in the epistemological and pedagogical inscrip- tions which are distinctive of different AIED solutions, together with the socio-technical complexities implied in their enactment in the ed- ucational milieux. On this basis, the chapter highlights the potential contribution that such an approach, combined with an attitude towards constructive criticism, can give in: a) promoting a reflective use of AI in learning environments (learning with AI); b) encouraging the entry of AI into training curricula (learning about AI); and above all c) recenter the educational in the design of learning experiences whose aim is not to instruct individuals to an instrumental use of a technology but rather allow them to become autonomous citizens in a world in which AI will be increasingly present in all crucial spheres of contemporary societies (learning for human-AI collaboration).