You don't have to love AI— but don't opt out

‘We hate AI. We think it’s horrible. We don’t want to engage with it at all. We don’t want this future.’

Those were the words of two students I had dinner with recently. They are in their twenties, just starting their professional life. And they have decided this technology is not for them.

I understand where they are coming from. The narratives around AI are binary: a paradise of future abundance or an inhumane hell. No space for nuance. 

A future painted as inevitable, underpinned by layoffs blamed on automation, vanishing entry-level jobs, and tech leaders

at graduation podiums warning the graduates that the ladder is being pulled up behind them. If you were just starting out, why would you trust this technology?

Both narratives, the paradise story and the hell story, follow the same pattern. I call it the ‘Certainty Trap’. It is conviction in the face of the genuinely unknowable.

The Certainty Trap assumes that the direction of travel is already set. That the future is already decided. It is not. But the certainty narrative is currently shaping the trajectory of AI in our societies. And this is what the two students respond to.

The anxiety, the scepticism, the refusal are anchored within a broader loss of optimism and confidence. Only about a third of people worldwide now believe the next generation will be better off. They respond by pulling inward.

And then there is the trust issue. Trust is our most important currency. And yet, seven in ten of us now hold what the Edelman Trust Barometer calls an insular mindset, hesitant or unwilling to trust anyone different from ourselves. And this applies to AI and the promise of unprecedented abundance. 

Recent polling across five major economies found that most people on lower incomes expect AI to leave them behind rather than help them. The people most afraid of this technology are those with the least power to shape it. That is the context we find ourselves in. The urge to withdraw, to disengage, is widely shared, and entirely understandable. It’s a valid choice.

But opting out of AI does not protect you from it. Stepping back does not pause the technology. It carries on being built and deployed, with or without you. What you lose is not your exposure to AI. It is any say over how it is built, what it is used for, and who it serves.

The students will say that engaging guarantees nothing. And indeed: a seat at the table does not promise you will win the argument. But not sitting at the table at all guarantees that your arguments won’t even be in the room.

I am not making the case for unconditional AI enthusiasm. I am interested in a different question: Who gets to decide what kind of future we are building? Right now, that question is being answered by very narrow group of people.

The narrower that group, the narrower the vision of the future. That is what I strive to change.

The women founders and entrepreneurs from around the world I work with at She Shapes AI are some of the technology’s most rigorous critics. They ask the important questions.

What is the purpose of this? Who benefits? Who pays the cost? How can we make sure it supports our humanity, and doesn’t take it away? How can we do AI well? 

But they do more than just ask. They provide answers. Questions and critical discussion do not slow technology down. They are necessary. 

They make it better. More inclusive. More relevant.

So, yes, distrust the hype. Be sceptical. Ask the hard questions, and ask them loud.

Challenge the easy story. But most importantly: get involved. Opting out is a choice. It is just not a neutral one. 

The future is being built right now, and it will be shaped by those who engage. That has to include you.

Dr. Julia Stamm doesn't just talk about a better future. She builds it. She is the founder and CEO of She Shapes AI, a global catalyst for responsible AI innovation. A sociologist by training, she holds a PhD in philosophy and has built four organisations from the ground up. Her career spans the European Commission, the G20, non-profit leadership, and entrepreneurship. She works at the intersection of innovvation, technology, and societal impact, and advises executives and organisations on human-centred leadership for the AI age.

Julia is a Fellow of the Centre for Digital Governance at the Hertie School, Berlin, and of the Royal Society of the Arts, London. She is a Founding Committee member of the AI in Media Institute, London, and a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the author are her own and do not in any way reflect those of Paraluman News.