GenAI as Digital Plastic: Understanding Synthetic Media Through Critical AI Literacy

TL;DR

This paper proposes the 'digital plastic' metaphor to understand GenAI's potential and risks, emphasizing the need for Critical AI Literacy to navigate synthetic media's societal impacts.

Contribution

It introduces the 'digital plastic' framework and advocates for integrating Critical AI Literacy into education to address GenAI's challenges and opportunities.

Findings

GenAI offers creative opportunities and digital accessibility.

GenAI poses risks like misinformation and ecosystem degradation.

Critical AI Literacy is essential for equitable digital literacy.

Abstract

This paper introduces the conceptual metaphor of 'digital plastic' as a framework for understanding the implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) content through a multiliteracies lens, drawing parallels with the properties of physical plastic. Similar to its physical counterpart, GenAI content offers possibilities for content creation and accessibility while potentially contributing to digital pollution and ecosystem degradation. Drawing on multiliteracies theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory, we argue that Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy (CAIL) must be integrated into educational frameworks to help learners navigate this synthetic media landscape. We examine how GenAI can simultaneously lower the barriers to creative and academic production while threatening to degrade digital ecosystems through misinformation, bias, and algorithmic homogenization. The digital plastic metaphor provides a theoretical foundation for understanding both the affordances and challenges of GenAI, particularly in educational contexts, where issues of equity and access remain paramount. Our analysis concludes that cultivating CAIL through a multiliteracies lens is vital for ensuring the equitable development of critical competencies across geographical and cultural contexts, especially for those disproportionately vulnerable to GenAI's increasingly disruptive effects worldwide.