“In the beginning was the connection”

languages and co-invention in the OnLIFE Education Paradigm

Abstract

Guided by the OnLIFE Education Paradigm, this article proposes a reflection on the emergence of co-created language practices arising from the connection between humans and Generative Artificial Intelligences (GenAI). It addresses the need to overcome the instrumental view of AI in education and the limitations of traditional conceptions of language, which are insufficient in the face of the hybrid discursive practices emerging with GenAI. The aim is to understand how co-intelligence (the connection between human and artificial intelligences) operates as a co-inventive force in meaning-making, problematizing authorship and reconfiguring the role of teachers, especially in the field of language studies.The text, theoretical-analytical in nature, engages with reticular epistemologies and connective pedagogies, understanding language as a networked event performed by humans, algorithms, data, GenAI, and platforms as transorganic discursive agents. The results indicate that: (1) GenAI, as an epistemic partner operating through co-intelligence, can foster the co-invention of discursive worlds; (2) language practices that emerge through co-intelligence challenge notions of authorship, creativity, intentionality, and dialogism; (3) there is a need to shift teachers from a transmissive stance to one of co-curatorship and intervention in discursive flows as they inhabit hybrid and intelligent linguistic ecosystems—an endeavor that requires multiliteracies (digital, algorithmic, and AI literacies) inseparable from critical-sensitive formation. It concludes that recognizing GenAI as an emerging discursive agent opens pathways to a plural, regenerative linguistic education capable of addressing challenges such as misinformation, algorithmic bias, and the loss of discursive agency, while enhancing the creation of inventive worlds that are more democratic and inclusive.