ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND RURAL EDUCATION: TERRITORY, TECHNOLOGICAL ETHICS, AND TEACHER TRAINING IN THE MATOPIBA CONTEXT

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the possibilities and limitations of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Rural Education, taking the MATOPIBA territory — particularly southern Maranhão — as its empirical and analytical reference. Adopting a qualitative bibliographic and analytical-critical approach, the study articulates contributions from Freirean pedagogy, critical geography, and contemporary studies on technology and algorithmic coloniality. It argues that AI constitutes a sociotechnical regime embedded in territorial and epistemological disputes rather than a neutral technological tool. Within the context of Brazil’s agricultural frontier, AI can either deepen digital inequalities and reinforce technocratic dependencies or support emancipatory pedagogical practices, depending on how it is mediated by educational policies and teacher training. The study concludes that teacher education represents a strategic axis for ensuring that AI is appropriated as a tool for food sovereignty, ecological literacy, and community-based knowledge production, strengthening territorial autonomy and social justice in rural contexts.