Artificial Intelligence or Intellectual Stunted Forms

Abstract

This commentary sets out from the ongoing debate about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly chatbots, in education and research. It is discussed if and how such use influences the production of knowledge. Drawing on various manifestations of artificial knowledge encountered during the author’s 50-year career in the educational system, the discussion explores what function AI has and can have. The conclusion is that AI is hindering the generation of new knowledge and instead constitutes a necessary condition for the emergence and the reproduction of intellectual stunted forms that in turn form a necessary condition for the reproduction of an existing, in principle arbitrary social order. This is so because AI is a stake in a class-struggle over the criteria for entering the socially dominant group legitimately exploiting already socially dominated groups.