this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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We often seek to dismantle false narratives by asserting the opposite, but perhaps a very valuable lesson from this series is precisely to highlight the value of not finding quick answers, of not resorting to comfortable solutions and familiar places, but rather, to recognise the unique value of generating more questions.

Some say AI is good and will help people and the planet. We can say it is not, and we can back up this statement with plenty of evidence. But we can also ask, which AI are we talking about? Who creates the AI tools, based on what criteria, and for what purposes? Are they designed to reinforce — while helping to create a narrative of justification for — war, land grabbing, surveillance, human rights violations, and economic exploitation?

Some say AI is inevitable. We can say it isn’t. But we can also question which lived realities we have in mind when making this claim. Certainly not the one of the traditional communities under attack in Brazil, to share one example from this series. And if this is not the case for everyone, who is pushing this narrative and with what purpose? Where will AI be and how can it be regulated?

In an age of certainties shaped by opaque algorithms and narratives that reinforce biases, uncertainty may well hold power. Raising questions certainly helps expose false assumptions. It may also help to dismantle a web of deception designed to divert attention from urgent issues, such as the lack of transparency, participation in decision-making, and accountability mechanisms, even when we are faced with such serious violations.

This whole series of articles seem like all really good reads on tech, AI and humanity!

https://globalvoices.org/special/dont-ask-ai-ask-a-peer/

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[–] haverholm@kbin.earth 2 points 5 days ago

Prioritising new questions over answers is a very good point, which I feel is let down by a somewhat bloated piece dedicated to summarising a series of essays. I think there is more to build on from that premise.

Perhaps the very selling points of "AI" are fallacies. If we turn to chatbots for answers, or to have an image or wall of text composed from a one line prompt, we cheat ourselves of the questions that would arise when we start researching a subject and writing our own notes; or studying an object as reference for a drawing.

But those processes without thought are marketed as time savers, as productivity. That may be an immediate gain — "for whom?" would be a productive follow-up question here — however, it reduces people to button clickers rather than problem solvers.

Filling out a blank space with a lot of words or pixels statistically modeled after the most likely pattern based on a prompt and all the training material in the world — that isn't productivity. It's literally just filling out a blank. I'd compare it to the sort of absent-minded drawing you make while you're on the phone, but phone doodles are more productive!

And if we fill out formulas and spreadsheet unproductively, the result isn't saving time anymore, because we'll need to do it over. And over. And over, until preferably a person will sit down and do the work. Ask the right questions, and then ask follow-ups based on the conclusions.

A hint here, the "right questions" aren't how to improve the model or the prompt, but whether we should be using "AI" for this in the first place.

It's in working through problems that we learn, and jog our wetware minds. It's that endless line of questions that truly generate new knowledge, like a three year old that won't stop asking "why?" to every successive answer you give them. Like the little nag in your brain that keeps working at an issue even though it's 4 AM and you'd really like some sleep.