Education as a Self-Conscious Process

From the Necessity of a Critical Attitude Towards Generative AI

Abstract

The article aims to demonstrate that education is not merely training but must be understood as an emancipatory process based on individual phronesis or judgment, self-determination, moral integrity, and social responsibility. The current developments and challenges of generative AI systems particularly illustrate that we must understand education in this way: When a text can be generated within seconds without knowledge of the content upon request via prompt, it demands reflective and reciprocal considerations or even practical changes in our educational practice—not merely as a reaction to a new tool available to us. The hope is, therefore, that generative AI compels our educational practices toward self-criticism, self-reflection, and rethinking, as certain principles of current educational practice are coming to an end or at least need to be questioned: Education can no longer focus solely on the assessment or consideration of the result or output. At the same time, generative AI systems, due to their hallucinations, biases, and discriminations, force us into a media-critical approach based on a (self-)critical individual attitude. This can only manifest as a well-founded opinion or conviction of the whole person.