Critical Literacy in an AI World

Critical Literacy in an AI World is an innovative book that uses critical literary perspectives to examine generative AI. It provides thought-provoking insights into advancements in artificial intelligence, which are increasingly entangled in human decision making across all spheres of society, profoundly reshaping literacy and media practices.

Mills and Gutierrez analyse how these transformations affect and are affected by the evolving nature of human knowledge, consciousness, creativity, emotion, ethics, and aesthetics. They highlight the importance of critical literacy for understanding and even reclaiming the power dynamics operating in the social construction of the human experience within AI-driven texts and technologies. This book encourages readers to critically navigate computational algorithms and agents that mediate digital social practices and daily life. Blending theoretical frameworks and practical applications, it advances students’ critical AI-based digital reading and authoring skills, as well as teachers’ capabilities to use critical pedagogies, curricula, and assessment for reflective AI text environments.

Critical Literacy in an AI World is essential reading for students and researchers in literacy and educational technology.

Kathy A. Mills is Professor of Literacies and Digital Cultures at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane. Her award-winning books include Big Data for Qualitative Research (2019, Routledge) and Literacy for Digital Futures: Mind, Body, Text (2023, Routledge). She is lead editor of the Handbook of Writing, Literacies and Education in Digital Cultures (2018, Routledge).

Amanda Gutierrez is an Associate Professor in English and Literacies Education in the Faculty of Education and the Arts, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane. Amanda’s research interests include critical literacies for video games in English teaching and learning in primary and secondary schooling.