"Does AI Make Us Smarter—or More Dependent?": Public Discourse on Knowledge Construction Across Cognitive, Behavioral, and Ethical Dimensions

ABSTRACTAs artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in educational ecosystems, its role in shaping how knowledge is acquired, interpreted, and applied raises new questions about human cognition, behavior, and ethics. Rather than reexamining AI’s efficiency or acceptance, this study explores how the public constructs meanings, responsibilities, and governance expectations around AI as a learning partner. Framed within the broader context of digital education policy and ethical AI governance, this study develops a Cognition–Behavior–Ethics (CBE) × Three-Stage (Acquisition, Comprehension, Application) analytical model to examine how public discussions on Reddit (2013–2025, N=10,503 posts) reflect collective reactions and reflections toward AI-assisted learning as a social phenomenon. Topic Modeling reveals three recurrent dilemmas: ensuring informational reliability during knowledge acquisition, maintaining cognitive agency amid growing AI reliance, and reconciling ethical responsibility with institutional and policy constraints in application contexts. These findings demonstrate AI is simultaneously constructed as an intellectual partner, behavioral facilitator, and ethical interlocutor—roles that transform learning from a pedagogical to a socio-technological process of reflection and negotiation. The study contributes theoretically by extending AI acceptance research into a discourse-driven framework of knowledge construction and practically by highlighting the need for transparent, participatory, and stage-specific governance in educational AI systems. Sustainable AI integration requires not only technological innovation also ethical oversight, public deliberation, and adaptive policy mechanisms fostering accountable, human-centered learning environments.