When AI Stopped Feeling Distant

Ashanti Boone

Hi! My name is Ashanti Boone, and I am a first-year Master’s student

studying Computer Science with a specialization in AI. I entered

computer science before the recent AI boom because I loved math and

problem solving, not realizing how deeply AI would shape my career

and the world around me.

During an ethics course in undergrad, I read studies about AI systems

used to support criminal justice decisions and learned how algorithmic

bias could disproportionately impact Black individuals. I remember

feeling shocked and honestly a little scared. AI had always felt futuristic

to me, but suddenly I realized these systems were already influencing

real lives. I talked about it with my friends, trying to understand how

technology designed to be objective could still reproduce human bias.

For the first time, I realized technology could shape people’s lives

without them fully understanding or even knowing how those systems

worked.

That moment stayed with me. During a later internship, I found myself

surprised by how many engineers underestimated the importance of

ethics education. Around me, AI was becoming impossible to ignore. On

social media, I watched AI-generated content spread rapidly while

people interacted with it as though it were real. As a tutor, I saw students

use AI to solve basic algebra problems and watched concerns about

cheating grow. I realized AI was no longer a distant idea. It was actively

shaping how people learn, communicate, and make decisions.

Those experiences shifted my focus from traditional software

engineering toward research, education, and policy. Today, I assist with

AI literacy research through an educational escape room designed to

help non-expert adults think critically about AI and understand its

ethical implications. Through this work, I am not only helping others

navigate AI more responsibly, but also deepening my own understanding

of these systems and their societal impact. My long-term goal is to use

that technical knowledge to contribute to stronger AI policy and

governance because I believe technology can be transformative only

when it is developed responsibly and reflects the diverse communities it

affects.

AI creates exciting opportunities to improve healthcare, expand access

to information, and automate difficult tasks. But I also worry that the

rapid race to develop AI may outpace our willingness to ask difficult

ethical questions. I want to work on this because I fear that systems built

without enough reflection, accountability, or diverse perspectives could

do more harm than good. The future of AI should not be defined only by

what technology can do, but by how responsibly we choose to develop, teach, and govern it.

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