AI and the Material Conditions of Instruction

Abstract: While there is a growing literature on the subject of using generative artificial intelligence tools in college teaching in general (and for information literacy instruction in particular), one important question remains underexplored: What is the point? This article suggests an approach to addressing that question by way of considering how technochauvinism—an intellectual attitude that combines blind optimism about the ability of technology to address social problems with the erasure of the human conditions that make that technology possible—discursively shapes and is reinforced by the material conditions of instruction. This approach reveals that concerns about how artificial intelligence does and does not serve pedagogical purposes are ultimately systemic in nature and cannot simply be addressed by teaching the technology.