Why Each of Us Must Prioritize Gaining A.I. Literacy

In Franz Kafka’s disturbing tale ‘A Hunger Artist’, a man subjects himself to prolonged starvation as a performance of art, while crowds watch on in apathy. Kafka uses this grim metaphor to critique society’s brutal indifference to human suffering.

Today, we all risk becoming ‘hunger artists’ in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) - depriving ourselves of understanding rapidly advancing technologies reshaping society. While AI holds promise to help solve long pressing problems like cancer, inequality and climate change, it also poses dangers if deployed irresponsibly, pushing workers to obsolescence or perpetuating systemic biases.

Whether AI assumes a positive or negative societal role depends on us proactively educating ourselves to govern it prudently. We must cultivate a ‘hunger’ for AI knowledge to retain agency over systems that risk dehumanizing us.

Through online courses, books, newsletters, blogs, public debates and more, we must actively enrich our understanding of how artificial intelligence works, its advantages, drawbacks, and how to use it for good. We require just enough insight to separate AI fantasies from realities, capabilities from limitations. Avoiding ignorance will prevent passive acceptance to whatever version of the future a few might choose for us.

Knowledge empowers us to demand laws and norms that regulate and provide oversight for the use of algorithms by those controlling them. Young professionals can prepare for occupational disruption through re-skilling. Policymakers can govern wisely if aware of AI’s potential impacts on jobs, privacy and security. Managers can infuse ethics into systems informed by ethical principles and considerations of social welfare. And citizens can drive reform as conscious consumers, advocating against unscrupulous practices.

AI literacy enables us to shape the narrative, retaining influence over how this powerful technology reshapes society. We can demand accountability for algorithmic biases and push for safeguards against misuse. Instead of being silent spectators to AI’s development like Kafka’s crowds, we can guide its trajectory prudently through collective awareness and moral imagination.

The Institute for the Future estimates 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet. These will likely involve new types of work alongside AI systems. Youth today will be most impacted by the disruption of automation. We owe it to them to invest now in AI ethics education at all levels to develop diligent engineers, designers and policymakers for the future.

Only by acquiring foundational knowledge in AI will we be able to lead the much-needed debates on fostering justice in machine learning and intelligent systems. We can help answer difficult questions such as: How do we program fairer algorithms? How do we regulate data collection and retention ethically? How can we use AI to protect human rights and dignity? An engaged, AI-literate society is essential for steering innovation responsibly.

Informed debate and dissent are the cornerstones of democracy. Throughout history, authoritarian regimes have restricted knowledge to concentrate influence. Similarly today, opaque algorithms privately owned threaten to disempower citizens and diminish human rights. Only through actively cultivating AI literacy can modern society retain clout over how these new technologies reshape our collective future.

Progress depends on our choice to either thoughtfully integrate AI guided by ethics, or recklessly adopt AI valuing only efficiency and profit. If we create a culture of learning around it, AI may yet amplify humanity’s best qualities, not its worst instincts. But this requires fasting from complacency and feasting on knowledge to participate in shaping a collective destiny.

In an age of intelligent algorithms, the hunger artist is not the performer on stage, but rather each of us in the audience. We must actively earn through knowledge the authority to guide AI toward human progress, or we will be relegated to minor roles in a narrative shaped by others. The stakes are too high to stand idly in passivity. The time to act is now.