From Turing to ChatGPT. The evolution of Artificial Intelligences and their impact on education

Abstract

The educational landscape is being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI), providing new opportunities for teaching and learning. The integration of these technologies brings up significant ethical and pedagogical concerns. What role can the educational community play in such a scenario? What critical and conscious use of AI is conceivable in education? How can teachers and educators act as mediators between pupils and new technologies? The present work aims at analysing and highlighting the outcome of some critical‐theoretical reflections that could better direct the methodological organisation concerning the use of AI in the educational sphere. In fact, starting from the analysis of the historical evolutions of the technological processes on the basis of the algorithmic turn, a series of theoretical reflections are analysed here that propose to orient pedagogical postures capable of supporting a critical approach to the integration between AI and didactic practice. It is from the fruitful relationship of theory‐praxis‐theory, in fact, that educational action can take on the profound pedagogical connotations of transformativity. The work therefore proposes a reflection on the potential of AI in education, analyses the ethical challenges involved, and raises pedagogical reflections for its responsible and conscious use.