AI: good or bad? (2)
In my previous post I wrote about three rings in which your opinion about AI can differ: the smallest ring of your individual AI use, the middle ring of your family or the children in class or at school, and the largest ring of society or the world.
Recently someone said to me: "The whole world is going to pieces because of AI; what can I do about it? My role seems so small."
That concerns the outer circle; for me that is where the most worry sits and your influence is the smallest. You can respond to it in different ways:
- Not using or banning AI at all
- Using AI anyway (without thinking ethically about it)
- Praying for that outer ring and focusing on the inner rings
For the first I have genuine respect; the second is common. Yet I do not choose that. Why not?
- Practical: AI is already in search engines, apps and school software. Avoiding it entirely is barely feasible. (At this moment 90% of secondary school pupils already use AI, scholieren.com, June 2025.)
- Pedagogical: a ban moves use into the shadows and (worse still) stops the much-needed reflection.
- Nuance: "AI" is not one thing. Some applications are risky, others useful. Lumping everything together hampers good discernment.
- Substantive: AI can offer enormous learning opportunities, among others in personalised learning.
- Comparison: we point to AI's energy use, but are less willing to make choices about, for example, WhatsApp, cloud or streaming use on the basis of the same arguments.
- Societal: what we teach children determines how the next generation deals with technology.
My choice is therefore the third attitude: praying to God, who is Almighty, unlike AI which is an intermediate power (a term from Rev. De Reuver), and focusing on the two other rings: that of individual use and especially that of children. The middle circle in particular holds many parenting opportunities. There we can teach children how something works, but above all why you would use it and when not (see my earlier post about Prompting like a P.R.O.).