AI in South Africa: Why teaching ethics to youth matters more than technical skills - IOL
As AI becomes integral to young South Africans' lives, youth development leaders emphasise that teaching moral judgment and ethical character is vital to ensuring technology is used for the greater good. Picture supplied
While the potential of artificial intelligence appears unlimited, there remains a profound responsibility and moral obligation to ensure the youth of South Africa learn more than just the mechanics of using new technology.
Whatever ambitious heights AI scales in the future, it can never produce original emotion or generate its own underlying ethics without human input. Of course, algorithms can mimic these traits with striking precision, but true authenticity in these deeply human realms remains perpetually out of reach.
Back in the 1990s, few could have accurately envisioned how rapidly the rise of AI would come to reshape our daily reality. Cinema, of course, offered its own dramatic forecasts—films like The Terminator painted a bleak future in which hyper-intelligent machines waged an all-out war against humanity.
Though cinematic, soldier Kyle Reese’s famous warning about the Terminator in the classic 1984 sci-fi film shares an uncanny parallel with modern concerns. As he succinctly put it: “It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!”
While Reese was describing a relentless cybernetic assassin, his words vividly capture contemporary anxieties surrounding autonomous digital systems—minus the physical violence, perhaps, but with an equal level of persistence when it comes to exploiting digital vulnerabilities and reshaping societal landscapes.
That is precisely where human agency comes in, particularly through the next generation. The children of today are growing up alongside AI, and for them, integrating it into daily life feels entirely natural.
From completing school assignments to generating digital artwork, there is little reason a child would not turn to an AI assistant at some point. However, many educators and developmental experts argue that relying too heavily or uncritically on these tools risks hindering fundamental cognitive and personal development.
“Our children and youth are learning to prompt AI before they have learned to question it,” explains Marc Lubner, Executive Chairperson and Group CEO of the youth development organisation Afrika Tikkun. “This is not merely a skills gap—it’s a critical judgment gap that needs to be actively closed.”
Afrika Tikkun says that educators and institutions have a fundamental duty to help young people build a robust moral foundation, ensuring they understand how to deploy AI both wisely and responsibly.
“This means inculcating principled judgment, ethical practice, core morals, and social values from a young age,” Lubner continues. “These core qualities cannot simply be taught through a short-term, crash-course module when people reach young adulthood; they are formed the way character is formed—slowly and intentionally over many years. There is an urgent onus on us to establish a strong, humane foundation in how we teach interaction with AI. Young people armed with such a powerful digital toolkit must understand that broad technological capability requires equal moral responsibility. Instilling this perspective is critical if we hope to harness AI for the greater good.”
