Abstract:
Readily available AI writers and spinners are constructing and paraphrasing text that writers, whether (blatantly) in industry or (secretly) in school, are using within textual compositions. The nature of writing is changing, with pressing questions arising about how to understand the human/machine convergence in new writing activities and how to conduct research in this space. Meanwhile, curriculum and pedagogy are preoccupied with other, national assessment regime-driven imperatives, as demonstrated in a study of the teaching of writing in Victoria in 2018-19. This presentation seeks to make links to secondary English disciplinary history in framing a digitally relevant agenda for AI writing research, in particular drawing on Bill Green’s notion of “composITing”. It also considers Rosi Braidotti’s concept of the posthuman as a way of making sense of writing as assemblage. These theoretical resources provide generative ways for other researchers to start engaging with the AI future, especially as AI-written academic journal articles are imminent, if not already out there!