Prosumer Approaches to AI: Techno-Social Moments and a Model for Literacy

ABSTRACT: Looking at historical moments reveals key concerns for the relationships between thinking, writing, and technology. In the 1990s, hypertext writing tools reshaped the links between writing and thinking and shifted understandings of agency. In the 2000s, technical developments created new affordances for composing with video, adding to consumer and producer cameras a new device category: the prosumer. The blurring of consumer and producer offers a valuable lens for understanding our current moment with artificial intelligence (AI). Early responses to AI focused on how writing might be used to produce knowledge through the act of prompting. Current developments are marked by the emergence of prosumer tools for AI. These technologies call for extending AI literacy to include knowledge of the customization and system creation possibilities of these low-threshold tools. This approach translates into a model of prosumer AI literacy.