The artificial intelligence debate  is immediately polarizing. We’ve all heard our family or friends talk about it. AI is either seen as a boon or met with severe pessimism.

But there’s a middle ground worth considering. This isn’t about championing AI as the solution to all our problems. Rather, it’s about realizing that AI literacy is essential, whether we choose to use these tools or not.

AI literacy isn’t about becoming an expert in machine learning. Unless you work in that field, it won’t do you much good. Instead, it’s about understanding what generative AI systems are, what they can and cannot do, and how they’re likely going to shape our economic landscape in the future.

The printing press offers a useful parallel. When it arrived in the fifteenth century, from those who feared it would democratize knowledge in dangerous ways resisted it. One example is Johannes Trithemius, a mid-15^th-century abbot who argued that the act of printing would make monks lazy by removing the spiritual discipline of manual copying.

Some fears about the printing press may have been warranted. But resisting the technology didn’t make it go away. Those who understood how it worked had a significant advantage. The same principle applies today.

This is why AI literacy matters more than AI enthusiasm. There’s little pressure to incorporate AI into your creative work or your daily life. But ignoring the technology entirely is a risk. As AI becomes more integrated into healthcare, education, finance, and manufacturing, those who understand the basics will be better positioned to navigate these changes.

One of the most common concerns is that AI will replace human creativity and authenticity. This worry is understandable. Art, storytelling, and music are deeply human endeavors that reflect our experiences and search for meaning. Can a machine really replicate that?

Probably not – at least not in any way that truly matters. AI can generate a poem or a painting, but it doesn’t know what it means to love someone or to struggle with doubt. It can mimic the patterns of human creativity, but it lacks the interior life that gives art its soul. We can take it or leave it.

We decide what deserves our attention. If AI-generated content floods the market, we’re not obligated to consume it or treat it as equivalent to work created by people with lived experiences. The proliferation of low-quality content is nothing new. It happened with the advents of television, the internet, and now, social media. Each time, people adapted by learning to distinguish between what was worthwhile and what wasn’t.

Understanding how AI works makes it easier to recognize its limitations and advocate for its responsible use. If we’re concerned about AI replacing meaningful human interaction, the solution isn’t to bury our heads in the sand. It’s to engage thoughtfully, to demand transparency from companies that are reliant on it, and to ensure that AI serves human flourishing.

For those who remain skeptical, that’s perfectly reasonable. Skepticism has its place when dealing with technologies that promise to reshape society. But skepticism shouldn’t devolve into ignorance. The world is moving forward with AI, and the best way to protect the values we hold dear is to understand what we’re dealing with.

AI literacy isn’t about embracing every new development uncritically. It’s about being informed enough to make wise decisions about how this technology fits into our lives. In a rapidly changing world, that kind of knowledge is a form of prudence.

This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. 

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