The Global Affairs Club hosted the Los Angeles World Affairs Council (LAWAC) on campus in a forum in Ahmanson Lecture Hall on April 25. The discussion, titled “The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI),” was moderated by Occidental College Associate Professor of Cognitive and Computer ScienceJustin Li
Global Affairs Club Founder Nathan Wang ’25 said he was happy the community came together to make the event possible.
“I was so proud to be able to finally host an event on our campus,” Wang said. “It was the most ideal way to give back to the organization, which has provided so much for us. The process of organizing the event itself was difficult, considering the time it took to meet with members of the planning committee and arrange the space. We are grateful to others clubs in the school community who moved their meetings from Ahmanson for us to host this event.”
LAWAC Chief Executive Officer Richard Downie said it is important to maintain independent thinking skills and to limit AI from being pervasive into everyday thinking.
“There was a study done by Harvard recently that found cognitive decline in people who relied too much on AI,” Downie said. “You really need to exercise your own brain and do the cognitive work that helps your brain develop, as opposed to depending on generative AI tools. Use AI to complement what you’re doing, but don’t replace it with your own thinking and ideas. People don’t want to hear something that’s regurgitated from AI, they want to hear your ideas.”
Li said he has already seen the impacts of AI on the job market and urged both individuals and the government to hold companies accountable to using it ethically.
“Companies are not necessarily thinking about how their use of AI will affect anything other than profits,” Li said. “It’s up to the people and the government to voice concerns to companies. AI already has changed the way we go about our daily lives and the job market. People are already being laid off because AI has taken over many of the jobs that they were doing. It’s only going to get worse in the next three or four decades. If you want to survive and make a living in this new economy, it’s your own responsibility to learn how to use AI to your advantage.”
Downie said he hopes the ethics of using AI will become more prominent in political discourse.
“Despite all of the wonderful advantages of AI, there are real downsides, like deepfakes,” Downie said. “While there are ways to detect them, they’re getting better and better. To stay ahead of that, there absolutely needs to be government regulation to minimize the impacts of the downsides of AI and still allow for its benefits.”
Sophia Wong ’27 said she believes young people play a critical part in deciding the role AI plays in society.
“AI has both the potential to develop for good or for worse,” Wong said. “As members of Generation Z, we need to be very considerate about how AI will be used in the future. Our generation will shape how AI will develop, and it’s up to us to control it.”
