AI under examination

The first day of December saw an invited audience of SIS donors and supporters gather at the Nobel Prize Museum for this year’s SIS Nobel Event. The audience was joined by a group of SIS students, role-playing famous – and some not-so-famous – laureates of the past.

Our guest speaker for the evening was Paulina Modlitba, a thought-leader and consultant in the field of AI. With a topic so current, it was no surprise that the large audience was attentive to her thoughts and opinions.

In her talk, Paulina Modlitba proposed how artificial intelligence can move beyond hype and fear to become a genuinely useful tool in everyday life, business, and society. She provided concrete examples to show how generative AI can support better decision-making, spark innovation, unlock creativity, and free up human time for meaningful work. 

But Paulina Modlitba didn’t present AI as a magic bullet. She emphasised the human side: behaviour, ethics, and the need for thoughtful implementation, not blind automation. She argued that the real challenge isn’t simply making machines smarter — it’s learning how we become wiser about how to use them responsibly. 

She concluded by urging curiosity, responsibility, and a grounded approach: when used with intention, AI can amplify human potential but she cautioned that this should only be if we lead with human values.

In the following discussion, the use of AI in education was specifically addressed. SIS Director,  Marisa Leon invoked the phrase ‘Productive Struggle’ in connection with the demands of the IB Diploma, and the value in finding answers through one’s own endeavours rather than looking for AI to hand them to you on a plate.

Audience discussion during the ‘Q&A’, and the conversations that followed, suggested that ethical considerations and the economic and social impact of AI are very much in the forefront of people’s thinking. In that respect, SIS is as one; working to introduce AI as a tool, not a panacea, and emphasising the responsibility and ethical understanding that goes with its use in the learning environment.