Abstract
This chapter explores a fundamental question for language education in the age of artificial intelligence: What does literacy mean when machines can write? As Kalantzis and Cope (2025) provocatively challenge us to consider, this technological shift requires a reconceptualisation of literacy beyond exclusively human practice. The traditional understanding of literacy, centred on print-based reading and writing, does not address the complexities of an era where AI-generated texts, multimodal communication and human-AI interactions are commonplace. In response to these developments, I propose the concept of “co-literacy”, which redefines literacy as a collaborative process between humans and AI. Co-literacy recognises the distinct yet complementary capabilities that each brings to meaning-making processes, humans with their contextual awareness, ethical reasoning and creative adaptation, machines with their computational power and multimodal processing capabilities. By contextualising co-literacy within the history of literacy and drawing on the multiliteracies framework of the New London Group, this chapter positions AI as a collaborative agent in language learning. This chapter offers a conceptual foundation for emerging pedagogical practices that foster learner autonomy, creative engagement and critical awareness in AI-mediated learning environments.