Activity 1: What Kind of Claim Is This?
This in-class activity asks you to slow down familiar statements about AI and ask what kind of claim each one is making. Some statements describe the world. Some say what ought to happen. Some are about who has power to decide. Many do more than one of these at once.
1. Claims
Consider the following statements about AI (numbered, but in no particular order):
- “AI will eliminate a large number of jobs.”
- “Students should be allowed to use generative AI for schoolwork.”
- “Employers are increasingly using algorithms to evaluate job applicants.”
- “AI companies should have to disclose what data they use to train their models.”
- “A handful of technology companies control access to the most powerful AI systems.”
- “AI tutors could make high-quality education available to more people.”
- “Doctors should remain responsible for final medical decisions even when an AI system is more accurate.”
- “Generative AI is making people less creative.”
- “Schools should prepare students to use AI rather than prohibit it.”
- “Technology companies currently make many decisions about what their AI systems will and will not do.”
2. Instructions
Choose several statements to analyze.
2.1. Categorize the claim
Is it:
- Descriptive / predictive – a claim about what is happening, what a system can do, or what might happen?
- Normative – a claim about what should happen, what is desirable, or what is acceptable?
- Political / institutional – a claim about who has power or authority, who gets to decide, or how decisions are made?
Some claims may belong to more than one category.
2.2. Look underneath the claim
- Evidence: What evidence would we need to evaluate the descriptive or predictive claim?
- Values: What values or assumptions are shaping the normative claim?
- Power: What actors, institutions, interests, or power relationships shape the political / institutional dimension?
2.3. Discuss
- Which claims sound factual but actually depend on a value judgment?
- Which claims are presented as inevitable when they are actually the result of choices and power?