Why a careless use of AI tools may contribute to an epistemological crisis

Abstract

With the rise of generative AI technologies, AI tools such as ChatGPT play a prevalent role in our world. This poses new opportunities and risks. Particularly in the field of education, the use of AI tools raises a number of new questions, for example, the challenge of proving human authorship, or whether we can continue to trust electronically distributed texts. This then puts into question whether the widespread and careless use of AI tools is contributing to an epistemological crisis. Based on an analysis of the inherent unreliability of generative AI and the increasing indistinguishability between human-written and machine-generated texts, this paper outlines the impact of generative AI on education and provides suggestions for the responsible use of AI tools. Investigating their use as legitimate tools, it also addresses the question as to whether the use of such tools could be counterproductive because it could possibly result in a deskilling effect