#1136: Can GenAI Participate as a Peer in Knowledge Building?

This study investigates how human–AI collaboration supports Knowledge Building (KB), a process of collective idea advancement. We are trying to conceptualize whether it is possible that generative AI can serve as a collaborator in knowledge creation. Using discourse analysis of one human–AI dialogue, we identified 66 idea units across 14 turns of text discourse, including one Rise Above where the participant synthesized ChatGPT 5’s ideas. While ChatGPT, as a collaborator, primarily restates human ideas, its elaborations can still catalyze the participants’ higher-level reasoning. The findings indicate that KB can occur in human–AI dialogue, highlighting the need to design more inquiry-driven and epistemically engaged AI for collaborative knowledge advancement.