The generative AI revolution, cognitive mediation networks theory and the emergence of a new mode of mental functioning: Introducing the Sophotechnic Mediation scale

Abstract

This paper examines the recent emergence of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT through the lens of the Cognitive Mediation Networks Theory (CMNT), deducing that the introduction of this radically new technology will likely create a new stage of collective cognitive functioning, called “Sophotechnic Mediation”, with characteristics that can be extrapolated from the way these new tools work and the dynamics of the sociocultural structures being created around them. From that description, the Sophotechnic Mediation Scale is proposed as a means to assess the extent of an individual's internalization of the new form of thinking. A preliminary empirical investigation with 132 higher education professors and students found the instrument to be statistically consistent, yielding a unidimensional and Gaussian score that behaves as a developmental trait emerging from the interaction with generative AIs, mediated by age and mastery of previous digital technologies and their cultural elements. It is concluded that the results are suggestive of the validity of the new scale and warrant further research.