Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Collective Reflection from the Educational Landscape

• Published in: Asian Journal of Distance Education Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 53 - 130
• Main Authors: Bozkurt, Aras, Xiao, Junhong, Lambert, Sarah, Pazurek, Angelica, Crompton, Helen, Koseoglu, Suzan, Farrow, Robert, Bond, Melissa, Nerantzi, Chrissi, Honeychurch, Sarah, Bali, Maha, Dron, Jon, Mir, Kamran, Stewart, Bonnie, Costello, Eamon, Mason, Jon, Stracke, Christian M, Romero-Hall, Enilda, Koutropoulos, Apostolos, Toquero, Cathy Mae, Singh, Lenandlar, Tlili, Ahmed, Lee, Kyungmee, Nichols, Mark, Ossiannilsson, Ebba, Brown, Mark, Irvine, Valerie, Raffaghelli, Juliana Elisa, Santos-Hermosa, Gema, Farrell, Orna, Adam, Taskeen, Thong, Ying Li, Sani-Bozkurt, Sunagul, Sharma, Ramesh C, Hrastinski, Stefan, Jandric, Petar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asian Society of Open and Distance Education 2023
• Subjects: Affordances; Artificial Intelligence; Cooperative Learning; Distance Education; Educational Benefits; Educational Practices; Fiction; Foreign Countries; Futures (of Society); Individualized Instruction; Natural Language Processing; Teacher Role; Technology Uses in Education; United States; Philippines; Egypt; United Kingdom; Malaysia; Spain; New Zealand; Canada; Sweden; Pakistan; Turkey; Ireland; China; Guyana; Italy; South Africa; Australia; Germany
• ISSN: 1347-9008

While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd) and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindset.