Abstract

Grounded in the pedagogical practice of teaching philosophy within an Italian upper secondary school (Liceo), this article addresses an emerging developmental challenge. Direct classroom observations reveal widespread student reliance on generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for personal and academic tasks. Crucially, these educational field observations indicate a growing psychological tendency among students to blur the boundaries between computational interfaces and human subjects, often failing to differentiate between synthetic validation and authentic human encounters. This paper argues that such anthropomorphic projections pose a substantive challenge to the development of emotional intelligence (EI) in secondary and primary education. Drawing on core psychological frameworks, we examine how frictionless AI interactions displace empathy formation and emotional self-regulation. To counter this ontological confusion, we propose a proactive pedagogical response rooted in the Socratic method and Matthew Lipman’s Philosophy for Children framework to rebuild relational resilience. The article concludes with actionable recommendations for educational stakeholders, emphasizing the preservation of human-centered, dialogic humanities curricula to safeguard the irreplaceable domain of authentic interpersonal relationships.