AI’s Unseen Risks: How Artificial Intelligence Could Harm Future Generations
The Great Simplification #180 with Zak Stein
While most industries are embracing artificial intelligence, citing profit and efficiency, the tech industry is pushing AI into education under the guise of ‘inevitability’. But the focus on its potential benefits for academia eclipses the pressing (and often invisible) risks that AI poses to children – including the decline of critical thinking, the inability to connect with other humans, and even addiction. With the use of AI becoming more ubiquitous by the day, we must ask ourselves: can our education systems adequately protect children from the potential harms of AI?
In this episode, I’m joined once again by philosopher of education Zak Stein to delve into the far-reaching implications of technology – especially artificial intelligence – on the future of education. Together, we examine the risks of over-reliance on AI for the development of young minds, as well as the broader impact on society and some of the biggest existential risks. Zak explores the ethical challenges of adopting AI into educational systems, emphasizing the enduring value of traditional skills and the need for a balanced approach to integrating technology with human values (not just the values of tech companies).
What steps are available to us today – from interface design to regulation of access – to limit the negative effects of Artificial Intelligence on children? How can parents and educators keep alive the pillars of independent thinking and foundational learning as AI threatens them? Ultimately, is there a world where Artificial Intelligence could become a tool to amplify human connection and socialization – or might it replace them entirely?
In case you missed it…
In last week’s Frankly — adapted from a recent TED talk like presentation (called Ignite) — I outlined how humanity is part of a global economic superorganism, driven by abundant energy and the emergent properties of billions of humans working towards the same goal. Rather than focusing on surface-level solutions, I invited us to confront the underlying dynamics of consumption and profit. It’s a perspective that defies soundbite culture — requiring not a slogan, but a deeper reckoning with how the world actually works.
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As Paul Valery said long ago, "If I am to write, I should infinitely prefer writing something feeble that was produced in full consciousness and utter lucidity, rather than being carried out of myself to give birth in a trance to one of the greatest masterpieces in literature."
As quoted by Jean Gebser in The Ever-Present Origin, page. 326.
AI is a very dangerous precedent for deference to "expert" decisions.