Teaching ethical AI usage: The next frontier of equality or injustice?

Originally written March 9, 2023.
My relationship with modern technology is complicated. I was born in the Philippines in 1987, where we were a few years behind the US in terms of technology. We mostly used mainframe computers and PCs for the wealthy, while the US already had laptops and cell phones. However, the establishment of the Department of Science and Technology in the Philippines in the year I was born led to significant technological advancements. Many Filipino engineers and scientists dedicated their lives to research and development, bringing advanced technology to the Philippines.

And it worked! In 1993, Mosaic was released, opening the door for the world wide web in the US, and just a year later, the Philippines had its first ISP. I remember building my own PC in middle school, playing LAN games, and taking a typing class. I recall using floppy disks, boot systems, Windows 3.1, and dial-up sounds. I pursued a computer science degree at 15 and learned the science behind the creation of tools to have the moral and ethical responsibility to ensure they work for humanity. I was involved in hacking groups, exploring ethical questions while trying to circumvent cybersecurity and break computers.

While I love technology, I am also one of the biggest resistors to it. I only started using a smartphone a few years ago, still drive a manual transmission car, and rarely post on social media. I am cautious in utilizing any smart devices, and I criticize new gadgets. I believe we should have a complex relationship with technology, understanding its context, innovation, and ethics, both as individuals and as a society.

When ChatGPT, a fine-tuned large language model AI, was recently released, I tried it within two days. After discussing ethical concerns with my leadership team, we all agreed on the different ways we can use it to become more efficient. We encouraged our team, families, and students to utilize it for themselves. However, the news exploded with fear and panic. We heard political arguments around AI, cautionary tales about its impact on the economy, and voting trends along with other stories of schools banning ChatGPT.

While these fears are rooted in important points that we need to discuss as a society, focusing on fear distracts us from what matters: the ethics around the continued growth of AI. Technology is once again outpacing our conversations about ethics and morality around these tools. Instead of having a visceral reaction against chatbots and painting AI as a problem, we should begin teaching our youth how to use them and shift the conversation to a discussion of ethics.

AI can create a more just world, while at the same time, it can be fully capable of creating a more unjust world. If we continue to have this reaction to AI, we will further increase the injustice around its access. The ability to interact with AI will soon have a significant impact on an individual's success. If we keep denying access to young people in the guise of policing their creativity and avoiding cheating, we will further disenfranchise communities.

The race to develop advanced AI technology is either the next frontier of equality or injustice. Those who possess access to and understanding of these tools will have a greater ability to create opportunities and achieve success. Proficiency in AI usage, navigation, interaction, and even creation is the next level of literacy. Understanding AI will soon be as essential as reading and math skills for success in modern society. In the same manner that for decades, proficiency in reading and math can predict drop-out rates and future prison rates, I predict that AI literacy will do the same.

Educators need to have conversations with their students about the ethics of AI, rather than outright banning its use. Fear-mongering about technology is unproductive, as technology and humanity are interdependent. Technology will always require humans for innovation and will create as many jobs as it replaces. Humans, on the other hand, need technology to satisfy their curiosity and survive in the world. Instead of discouraging AI usage, we must encourage our youth to become future creators of AI and engage them in discussions about directing this fast-paced technology toward a more ethical future.

Already, we have seen ethical issues arise with the most recent AI releases, such as biased algorithms, unregulated visual and written art, lack of accountability, and exacerbation of societal problems. AI can further exacerbate existing inequalities by limiting access to technology and resources for low-income communities and perpetuating bias in algorithms. Ethical concerns around data usage, privacy, and accountability must be addressed to prevent further injustice and inequalities, especially for marginalized communities.

We must approach the development and implementation of AI with caution and prioritize ethical considerations. This will ensure that AI is used responsibly and equitably, reducing existing gaps and inequalities in society.

I’ll never forget when Google search first came out. The majority of our professors told us not to use it, arguing that researching on Google was not the same as going to the library. Professors said our learning would be stunted by utilizing internet search engines instead of libraries. Many people also told us that search engines were unreliable and would cause more problems. But I had one professor who taught us differently. He told us to use search engines and stated that we would come to a world where ignorance would become a choice if we had access to search engines. He then taught us how quickly misinformation could happen and how, whenever we use search engines, we should always check for counterarguments to our points, review multiple sources, check the credibility of sources, read the full context of each article, understand the source of the sources, and finally, learn how to utilize search engines to enable us to do these very things.

The truth is that we can no longer stop the flood of abuse and unethical usage of AI by adults and people in power. The dam has already broken, and the flood has long begun. Instead, we can teach the next generation how to live amidst this flood and then teach them what we did that caused this flood. By learning from our mistakes, they can understand why it’s important to be ethical and responsibly use technology because the reality is that we don’t know what mistakes they’ll be making in the new world they’ll be living in. And maybe they can even undo this flood that we’ve created. Telling them to avoid the flood altogether is not going to work.

Title for this blog was generated by chatGPT