ChatGPT and the separation between knowledge and knower

ChatGPT is now widely understood in academia and the media as a ‘game changer’ in education. Detractors see it as fostering ethically problematic educational practices and a threat to the development of critical thinking skills, while fans see it as improving education by, in part, creating a more personalized educational experience. Meanwhile, analyses of the ethical ramifications of ChatGPT use in education are usually developed without discernible philosophies of education. Instead, they mostly discuss issues of privacy, plagiarism, information veracity, and trust in AI. In disagreement with this understanding of ethics and of the relationship between learners and technology, this paper asserts the importance of a humanistic approach to written composition and education at large. The paper underscores the likely possibility of ChatGPT considerably constraining the development of learners’ cognitive, intellectual, and ethical powers and potentials, thus potentially transforming learners into a-critical consumers (rather than critical producers) of knowledge.