William Gopal

Digital technologies are indispensable in our everyday practices of generating, storing, and acquiring knowledge. Following the increasing accessibility and sophistication of generative AI technology (e.g., ChatGPT), Microsoft and Google implemented generative AI into their search engines & web browsers, changing the design of the online environments we inhabit whilst seeking, producing, and sharing information. We already know that the design of online environments influences users’ affective and attentional behaviour, thereby impacting how they seek, produce, and share information. Likewise, existing research acknowledges that digital technologies, such as social networking sites and content recommendation algorithms, have complicated social processes of acquiring knowledge. However, we don’t know whether we require new cognitive skills and intellectual character traits (e.g., open-mindedness) to produce information with digital technologies.