Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

AI literacy: An odyssey in need of a compass

AI literacy: An odyssey in need of a compass
Getty Images

Kevin Frazier i s an Assistant Professor at the Crump College of Law at St. Thomas University. He previously clerked for the Montana Supreme Court.

“Smart” people know all the answers, right? That may have been true decades and centuries ago when things were less complex. Today, it’s the opposite: certainty of any one thing is a sign of ignorance of many more. The smartest person these days knows that the odds of things remaining fixed and known diminishes with every new AI model, each trade deal, and all increases in interdependence among people, nations, and ideas.


The old definition of “smart” has worked its way into every facet of our culture. From pre-k to Jeopardy, we reward the kid or Ken who can produce the “right” answer. This sort of knowledge reflected the time a person spent studying the tools at our disposal: novels, textbooks, and other sources of information that remained—more or less—unchanged.

New educational tools, however, can render the whiz kids of one era the fools of another. Whether someone knew how to use an abacus, for instance, once marked intelligence. Now it’s mainly a sign of someone with some spare time on their hands. The people and communities that embrace these new tools have the best odds of leading the future and avoiding the turbulence of an ever more complex world.

ChatGPT3 ushered in a new set of tools that require us to redefine “smart” to center on “curiosity” rather than “certainty.” As with any change, this one will induce pushback from those who benefit from the earlier set of tools and from certain ideas being regarded as fixed and frozen. Yet, just as water works its way through any rock, tools that expand access to knowledge eventually grind down (or simply outlast) their opponents.

The fundamentals of using AI tools should not be left to chance. “AI Literacy” should be a “thing.” In other words, every American should have access to AI tools and develop the understanding necessary to use them in a productive manner. A key part of that literacy must include an appreciation of the limits of AI tools. If folks don’t learn those limits then AI may foster a certainty mindset rather than one grounded in curiosity.

A lawyer who lacked AI literacy recently made this clear by assuming the AI tool had greater accuracy, using it to answer a question rather than help ask better ones, and failing to do background research on the tool’s limitations. This misuse goes to show that even highly educated professionals are ill equipped to use tools they don’t understand. No one’s an expert in the unfamiliar and unknown.

AI literacy efforts should complement and augment related drives to increase “traditional” literacy as well as digital literacy. These latter efforts have languished despite becoming all the more important in a world defined by content. Absent knowing how to read and write, how to safely and smartly use the Internet, and, now, whether and when to employ AI tools, folks will fall behind in the labor market, in the classroom, and in their ability to advocate for themselves and the causes they support. Progress in any one of these literacy rates should further progress in the others.

A major step toward AI literacy is possible sooner than later: AI developers should produce guidelines on how to use their products in a way that’s readily understood by people with varying degrees of “traditional” and digital literacy. Ideally, these guidelines would be translated into a multitude of languages and perhaps be accompanied with visual explanations.

Unleashing our collective curiosity could reshape how we work, govern, and build community. A first step toward that lofty goal is directing our social institutions and norms away from a “certainty” mindset. A second step is equipping people with the various types of literacy required to ask big questions and act on new information. AI won’t wait for us to catch up. Let’s not fall behind. Now's the time to define and develop AI Literacy initiatives.

Read More

news app
New platforms help overcome biased news reporting
Tero Vesalainen/Getty Images

The Selective Sanctity of Death: When Empathy Depends on Skin Color

Rampant calls to avoid sharing the video of Charlie Kirk’s death have been swift and emphatic across social media. “We need to keep our souls clean,” journalists plead. “Where are social media’s content moderators?” “How did we get so desensitized?” The moral outrage is palpable; the demands for human dignity urgent and clear.

But as a Black woman who has been forced to witness the constant virality of Black death, I must ask: where was this widespread anger for George Floyd? For Philando Castile? For Daunte Wright? For Tyre Nichols?

Keep ReadingShow less
Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making
Mount Rushmore
Photo by John Bakator on Unsplash

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

No one can denounce the New York Yankee fan for boasting that her favorite ballclub has won more World Series championships than any other. At 27 titles, the Bronx Bombers claim more than twice their closest competitor.

No one can question admirers of the late, great Chick Corea, or the equally astonishing Alison Krauss, for their virtually unrivaled Grammy victories. At 27 gold statues, only Beyoncé and Quincy Jones have more in the popular categories.

Keep ReadingShow less
A close up of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge.

Trump’s mass deportations promise security but deliver economic pain, family separation, and chaos. Here’s why this policy is failing America.

Getty Images, Tennessee Witney

The Cruel Arithmetic of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

As summer 2025 winds down, the Trump administration’s deportation machine is operating at full throttle—removing over one million people in six months and fulfilling a campaign promise to launch the “largest deportation operation in American history.” For supporters, this is a victory lap for law and order. For the rest of the lot, it’s a costly illusion—one that trades complexity for spectacle and security for chaos.

Let’s dispense with the fantasy first. The administration insists that mass deportations will save billions, reduce crime, and protect American jobs. But like most political magic tricks, the numbers vanish under scrutiny. The Economic Policy Institute warns that this policy could destroy millions of jobs—not just for immigrants but for U.S.-born workers in sectors like construction, elder care, and child care. That’s not just a fiscal cliff—it is fewer teachers, fewer caregivers, and fewer homes built. It is inflation with a human face. In fact, child care alone could shrink by over 15%, leaving working parents stranded and employers scrambling.

Meanwhile, the Peterson Institute projects a drop in GDP and employment, while the Penn Wharton School’s Budget Model estimates that deporting unauthorized workers over a decade would slash Social Security revenue and inflate deficits by nearly $900 billion. That’s not a typo. It’s a fiscal cliff dressed up as border security.

And then there’s food. Deporting farmworkers doesn’t just leave fields fallow—it drives up prices. Analysts predict a 10% spike in food costs, compounding inflation and squeezing families already living paycheck to paycheck. In California, where immigrant renters are disproportionately affected, eviction rates are climbing. The Urban Institute warns that deportations are deepening the housing crisis by gutting the construction workforce. So much for protecting American livelihoods.

But the real cost isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in broken families, empty classrooms, and quiet despair. The administration has deployed 10,000 armed service members to the border and ramped up “self-deportation” tactics—policies so harsh they force people to leave voluntarily. The result: Children skipping meals because their parents fear applying for food assistance; Cancer patients deported mid-treatment; and LGBTQ+ youth losing access to mental health care. The Human Rights Watch calls it a “crueler world for immigrants.” That’s putting it mildly.

This isn’t targeted enforcement. It’s a dragnet. Green card holders, long-term residents, and asylum seekers are swept up alongside undocumented workers. Viral videos show ICE raids at schools, hospitals, and churches. Lawsuits are piling up. And the chilling effect is real: immigrant communities are retreating from public life, afraid to report crimes or seek help. That’s not safety. That’s silence. Legal scholars warn that the administration’s tactics—raids at schools, churches, and hospitals—may violate Fourth Amendment protections and due process norms.

Even the administration’s security claims are shaky. Yes, border crossings are down—by about 60%, thanks to policies like “Remain in Mexico.” But deportation numbers haven’t met the promised scale. The Migration Policy Institute notes that monthly averages hover around 14,500, far below the millions touted. And the root causes of undocumented immigration—like visa overstays, which account for 60% of cases—remain untouched.

Crime reduction? Also murky. FBI data shows declines in some areas, but experts attribute this more to economic trends than immigration enforcement. In fact, fear in immigrant communities may be making things worse. When people won’t talk to the police, crimes go unreported. That’s not justice. That’s dysfunction.

Public opinion is catching up. In February, 59% of Americans supported mass deportations. By July, that number had cratered. Gallup reports a 25-point drop in favor of immigration cuts. The Pew Research Center finds that 75% of Democrats—and a growing number of independents—think the policy goes too far. Even Trump-friendly voices like Joe Rogan are balking, calling raids on “construction workers and gardeners” a betrayal of common sense.

On social media, the backlash is swift. Users on X (formerly Twitter) call the policy “ineffective,” “manipulative,” and “theater.” And they’re not wrong. This isn’t about solving immigration. It’s about staging a show—one where fear plays the villain and facts are the understudy.

The White House insists this is what voters wanted. But a narrow electoral win isn’t a blank check for policies that harm the economy and fray the social fabric. Alternatives exist: Targeted enforcement focused on violent offenders; visa reform to address overstays; and legal pathways to fill labor gaps. These aren’t radical ideas—they’re pragmatic ones. And they don’t require tearing families apart to work.

Trump’s deportation blitz is a mirage. It promises safety but delivers instability. It claims to protect jobs but undermines the very sectors that keep the country running. It speaks the language of law and order but acts with the recklessness of a demolition crew. Alternatives exist—and they work. Cities that focus on community policing and legal pathways report higher public safety and stronger economies. Reform doesn’t require cruelty. It requires courage.

Keep ReadingShow less
Multi-colored speech bubbles overlapping.

Stanford’s Strengthening Democracy Challenge shows a key way to reduce political violence: reveal that most Americans reject it.

Getty Images, MirageC

In the Aftermath of Assassinations, Let’s Show That Americans Overwhelmingly Disapprove of Political Violence

In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination—and the assassination of Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman only three months ago—questions inevitably arise about how to reduce the likelihood of similar heinous actions.

Results from arguably the most important study focused on the U.S. context, the Strengthening Democracy Challenge run by Stanford University, point to one straightforward answer: show people that very few in the other party support political violence. This approach has been shown to reduce support for political violence.

Keep ReadingShow less