By Categories: Society

What My Mother Taught Me About Surviving the AI Age

When I think of my 67-year-old mother navigating Instagram like a seasoned archivist, I can’t help but smile. She doesn’t post for likes, followers, or viral trends. Her feed isn’t curated for the world—it’s her private vault of memories. With a locked account shared only with close family, she uses the app like a digital diary, quietly chronicling life. What sold her on it wasn’t the filters or reels—it was permanence. “Even if I lose my phone, I won’t lose this,” she said, tapping on a photo from a summer decades ago.

And perhaps that quiet wisdom is exactly what we need now.

We’ve come a long way—from a world with no internet, to Orkut and Facebook friendships, to the manicured perfection of Instagram. And now, we’re standing at the edge of something even more profound: an era where Artificial Intelligence doesn’t just assist us—it imitates us. Thought, tone, even emotion, recreated by code.

Because here’s the thing: AI can mimic motivation, but it doesn’t care if you fall apart mid-run.

In April 2023, 30,000 global figures—including Elon Musk, Yuval Noah Harari, and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio—signed an open letter urging labs to hit pause on AI development. Their concern? That unchecked, advanced AI systems could warp societies, subtly and powerfully. Critics called it alarmist. Others whispered: maybe it’s already too late.

Case in point: a study by the University of Zurich. Without asking anyone, researchers used AI to post over 1,000 comments on a Reddit forum called Change My View. The goal? Test how persuasive AI could be. The result? AI out-argued humans. Repeatedly. The users had no idea they were debating a machine. The line between manipulation and engagement blurred, and ethics were tossed into the wind. The researchers apologized, but the damage had been done.

That’s the quiet danger. Not killer robots. Not Terminators. But a gentle voice online nudging your opinions, shifting your beliefs, rewriting your thoughts—and you’d never even know.

So, do we unplug? Abandon AI? Not quite.

The solution isn’t fear—it’s intentionality. My mother didn’t download Instagram because everyone else did. She downloaded it because she wanted to preserve something. Her use was rooted in meaning, not momentum.

We need to approach AI the same way: as a tool, not a substitute for thought. It can help, but it can’t feel. It can flatter, but it can’t understand. It can echo our morals, but it can’t create them.

As the lines between man and machine grow thinner, maybe our best defense isn’t regulation or outrage—but purpose. Use AI with clarity. Engage it with limits. And above all, never let it replace the most human part of you: your judgment.

Because in a world rushing toward the future, maybe the key to staying human… is thinking like my mother.


Share is Caring, Choose Your Platform!

Recent Posts