Anyone over the age of 30 has heard at least one business manager, entrepreneur, or university professor complain that the younger generation is remarkably AI-savvy and quick to complete tasks with AI, yet young people are often unable to adequately question, think through, or explain the outputs they receive.
The concept of human oversight is also still a highly abstract idea – what is a proper human oversight? How do we teach that? Without strong foundations for critical thinking, AI tools risk amplifying issues already present in many societies, where people believe everything they read. Previously, this over-reliance applied to traditional media, later to social media, and now to chatbots and various AI tools.
As a result, a lack of critical thinking is making both individuals and whole societies more vulnerable to various external threats, while employees who use AI lazily are exposing their workplaces to not only commercial and reputational threats but also legal consequences.
Currently, European governments have two options on the table: either they engage with both the opportunities and threats of AI tools passively (focusing on soft-format lecturing on ethical considerations, threats, and more), or they go head-on and use the AI tools to steer students in the right direction, raising young adults who are not only AI literate but also critical thinkers.
