AI's Unseen Risks: How Artificial Intelligence Could Harm Future Generations with Zak Stein
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2025
⏱️ 110 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While most industries are embracing artificial intelligence, citing profit and efficiency, the tech industry is pushing AI into education under the guise of 'inevitability'. But the focus on its potential benefits for academia eclipses the pressing (and often invisible) risks that AI poses to children – including the decline of critical thinking, the inability to connect with other humans, and even addiction. With the use of AI becoming more ubiquitous by the day, we must ask ourselves: can our education systems adequately protect children from the potential harms of AI?
In this episode, Nate is joined once again by philosopher of education Zak Stein to delve into the far-reaching implications of technology – especially artificial intelligence – on the future of education. Together, they examine the risks of over-reliance on AI for the development of young minds, as well as the broader impact on society and some of the biggest existential risks. Zak explores the ethical challenges of adopting AI into educational systems, emphasizing the enduring value of traditional skills and the need for a balanced approach to integrating technology with human values (not just the values of tech companies).
What steps are available to us today – from interface design to regulation of access – to limit the negative effects of Artificial Intelligence on children? How can parents and educators keep alive the pillars of independent thinking and foundational learning as AI threatens them? Ultimately, is there a world where Artificial Intelligence could become a tool to amplify human connection and socialization – or might it replace them entirely?
(Conversation recorded on May 12th, 2025)
About Zak Stein:
Dr. Zak Stein is a philosopher of education, as well as a Co-founder of the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. He is also the Co-founder of Civilization Research Institute, the Consilience Project, and Lectica, Inc. He is the author of dozens of published papers and two books, including Education in a Time Between Worlds. Zak received his EdD from Harvard University.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | we are very systematically betraying the youth. |
| 0:03.6 | My sense is that the people who love kids and interact with kids all day and are worried about kids |
| 0:08.7 | would be worried about this. |
| 0:10.3 | If they give personhood to chatbots, it's going to open up a world of pain and a world |
| 0:16.0 | of insanity. |
| 0:16.9 | And they're doing it not because they believe actually that they're personhood. |
| 0:19.8 | They're doing it primarily to protect their corporate interests to continue to distribute this incredibly popular, deceptive technology. |
| 0:31.3 | You're listening to The Great Simplification. I'm Nate Higgins. On this show, we describe how energy, the economy, |
| 0:39.2 | the environment, and human behavior all fit together and what it might mean for our future. |
| 0:44.1 | By sharing insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire more humans to play |
| 0:50.5 | emergent roles in the coming great simplification. |
| 0:59.4 | Today I'm rejoined by Zach Stein, who is a leading authority on the future of education and human |
| 1:05.6 | development. We take a deep dive on the risks that artificial intelligence is increasingly presenting for the education of today's youth. |
| 1:16.3 | Zach Stein is the co-founder of the Civilization Research Institute as well as the Consilience Project. |
| 1:23.3 | Zach received his doctorate from Harvard University and has been trained at the interface of philosophy, |
| 1:29.3 | psychology, and education, and now works in fields related to the mitigation of global catastrophic risk. |
| 1:37.0 | Zach is also the co-founder of the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. |
| 1:41.1 | In addition, Zach is the author of dozens of published papers and two books, |
| 1:46.1 | including education in a time between worlds. This conversation sheds light on a largely |
| 1:52.7 | overlooked and increasingly insidious risk that artificial intelligence poses to our society. |
| 1:59.0 | The integration of technology and the upbringing of our |
| 2:03.1 | youth has become the standard in many countries with minimal thought to the long-term consequences |
... |
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