RETEXTUALIZATION AND AI IN TEXT PRODUCTION:

IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON BASIC EDUCATION

Abstract

The growing use of generative Artificial Intelligences (AI), such as ChatGPT, has been transforming certain everyday language practices as well as the ways we access and produce knowledge. However, this use often occurs uncritically, fostering a passive and dependent relationship between humans and systems based on colonial logics of knowledge production. In the school context, these tools have been increasingly used in routine activities such as text production, which can undermine student agency and silence knowledge rooted in their own lived experiences. This article analyzes the impacts of AI use on the production of retextualized short stories by 8th-grade students from a public school in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte (RMBH), Brazil. The analysis draws on the concept of the "condensation operation" proposed by Marcuschi (2004) and on the framework of meaning-making design developed by Cope and Kalantzis (2006, as adapted by Rojo, 2013). The results indicate a dilution of point of view and subjectivity in texts mediated by AI. Therefore, the constant use of artificial intelligences in text production leads to the erasure of authorship and personal involvement from students, weakening writing as a space for reflection and critical expression.