Sociotechnical controversies in the classroom and the meanings attributed to artificial intelligence: a case study of the EMTI Multimedia Program at the IFRS Vacaria Campus (2023)

Abstract

The article seeks to address how sociotechnical controversies surrounding conversational artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT, manifest in the discourses circulating among students enrolled in the Integrated Technical High School (EMTI) program at the Vacaria campus of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS). The theoretical framework employed is grounded in Social Studies of Science and Technology (SSST) and in the field of Professional, Scientific, and Technological Education (PSTE). The objective was to analyze the possibilities and limitations of engaging students in the practice of argumentation and critical reading regarding media content, public policies, and sociotechnical knowledge about AI. AI is a field of knowledge within Computer Science that intersects with Mathematics, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, and Neuroscience, aiming to prepare machines and computers to perform tasks that the human mind is capable of executing. The methodological approach adopted to achieve the proposed objective involved the collection and analysis of both primary and secondary data. Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire administered in September 2023 to students of an EMTI program. Secondary data were gathered through the reading and interpretation of books and scientific articles. Data analysis was conducted using a critical-participatory method with a historical-structural perspective. The review of specialized literature—including works by Boden, Collins and Pinch, Crary, Feenberg, Manacorda, Sabzalieva, Valentini, among others—supports the initial hypothesis that there exists what may be termed a “skeptical-critical stance” toward AI. That is, a questioning attitude that challenges both excessive attraction and admiration (technophilic position) and extreme aversion and fear (technophobic position) in human-AI relations.