The Role of Materiality in an Era of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Kok‐Sing Tang, Grant Cooper · 2023
The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT has raisedmany challenging questions about the nature of teaching, learning, and assessment in everysubject area, including science. Unlike other disciplines, natural science is unique because theontological and epistemological understanding of nature is fundamentally rooted in our interactionwith material objects in the physical world. GenAI, powered by statistical probabilityarising from a massive corpus of text, is devoid of any connection to the physical world. Theuse of GenAI thus raises concerns about our connection to reality and its effect on scienceeducation. This paper emphasizes the importance of materiality (or material reality) in shapingscientific knowledge and argues for its recognition in the era of GenAI. Drawing on theperspectives of new materialism and science studies, the paper highlights how materialityforms an indispensable aspect of human knowledge and meaning-making, particularly in thediscipline of science. It further explains how materiality is central to the epistemic authorityof science and cautions the outputs generated by GenAI that lack contextualization to a materialreality. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for research and teachingthat recognize the role of materiality in the context of GenAI, specifically in practical work,scientific argumentation, and learning with GenAI. As we navigate a future dominated byGenAI, understanding how the epistemic authority of science arises from our connection tothe physical world will become a crucial consideration in science education.