From Pedagogical Mediation to Algorithmic Presence: Generative AI and the Transformation of the Educational Relationship

Abstract

The widespread diffusion of generative artificial intelligence within educational contexts is radically transforming both learning processes and the teacher–student relationship. The disintermediation produced by systems grounded in logics of statistical plausibility increasingly assigns AI a central role not only in the construction of knowledge, but also in practices of emotional support and listening to students. Drawing on a mixed-methods study involving ninety upper secondary school students aged 17–18, this contribution aims to analyse the gradual transition from the use of AI as an instrumental device for cognitive support to its configuration as a “relational presence” endowed with a para-social dimension. Particular attention is devoted to the mechanisms of validation increasingly demanded of AI, which have traditionally belonged to learning processes and educational relationships grounded in mediation, recognition, and the intersubjective construction of knowledge.