USC Wrigley Institute Director Joe Árvai on combatting reliance on AI for decision-making
Featured in an audio essay in the The Academic Minute, USC Wrigley Institute Director Joe Árvai discusses the risks of allowing AI to make decisions for us, emphasizing that it can diminish our ability to make thoughtful, well-informed choices. Árvai, who is also the USC Dana and David Dornsife Chair and Professor of Psychology, conducts research on decision-making processes and risk management, particularly in the context of sustainability and environmental policy.
He highlights the importance of developing decision-making skills through understanding, evaluating options, and exercising self-discipline, and urges listeners to resist an over-reliance on AI to preserve our capacity for critical thinking.
“Handing more and more of our daily decisions over to AI magnifies the risks of corner cutting because it presents answers devoid of our own understanding and deliberation, robbing us of opportunities to practice making thoughtful, defensible decisions.”