Assistant Professor Erik Brezovec, PhD, from the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Croatian Studies has published a new scientific paper titled ‘Generative AI as meaning-mediating infrastructure in education: a critical integrative review of inclusion, exclusion, and semantic transduction’. The paper was published in early September in the international scientific journal AI & Society published by Springer Nature and is available in open access.
The paper was co-authored with Steven Watson from the University of Cambridge and Christian Morgner from the University of Portsmouth.
The authors address the topical question of the role of generative artificial intelligence in education, viewing AI not merely as a tool that makes it easier for pupils and students to access information. At the heart of the paper is the question of how the use of generative AI changes the ways in which pupils and students are recognised, supported and assessed within the education system, and how it can contribute both to inclusion and to the creation of new forms of inequality.
Particular attention is paid to differences in access to and ability to use AI, the possibility that AI encourages standardised patterns of ‘good’ academic work, and the changes its use brings to the understanding of authorship, teaching and assessment. The authors also introduce the concept of semantic transduction, which describes how generative AI reshapes educational demands — such as assignments, instructions, assessment criteria and feedback — into communicatively acceptable forms.
The authors conclude that an individual's AI literacy alone is not enough to address potential educational inequalities. Broader responsibility of educational institutions and other stakeholders is needed, including transparent rules for the use of AI, inclusive design, the possibility of challenging decisions, and continuous monitoring of the effects of AI on education.
The paper is available in open access on the Springer Nature.