The head of youth development group Afrika Tikkun has said young South Africans must learn ethics when they use artificial intelligence. He said learning how to use the tools is not enough.
Marc Lubner is the executive chairperson and group CEO of Afrika Tikkun. According to IOL, he said children and young people are learning to use AI before they learn to question it.
“Our children and youth are learning to prompt AI before they have learned to question it,” Lubner said.
He said this was “not merely a skills gap”. He described it as a gap in judgment that needs to be actively closed.
Afrika Tikkun said teachers and institutions have a duty to help young people build a strong moral base. The group said this would help young people use AI in a wise and responsible way.
Lubner said this means teaching principled judgment, ethical practice, core morals and social values from a young age.
He said these values cannot be taught in a short crash course once people reach young adulthood. He said they are formed “slowly and intentionally over many years”, in the same way that character is formed.
“There is an urgent onus on us to establish a strong, humane foundation in how we teach interaction with AI,” Lubner said.
“Young people armed with such a powerful digital toolkit must understand that broad technological capability requires equal moral responsibility,” he said.
The IOL report said children in South Africa are growing up with AI, and using it feels natural to them. It said a child may turn to an AI assistant for school assignments or to create digital artwork.
According to the report, many teachers and child development experts argue that leaning too heavily on these tools carries a risk. They say using AI without thinking can hold back a child’s mental and personal growth.
The report said AI can copy human emotion and ethics very closely. But it said AI cannot create real emotion or its own ethics without human input.
It compared current worries about AI systems to the 1984 film The Terminator, in which machines wage war on people. The report said modern digital systems do not use physical violence.
But it said they can be just as persistent when it comes to exploiting weak points in digital systems. The report said this is where the next generation of young people comes in.
Lubner said teaching young people this view of moral responsibility is needed if AI is to be used for the greater good.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL Technology. Image: IOL Technology. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.