Initial ideas
AI + Humanity: What Future Are We Building?
Big Idea
AI is rapidly changing how people learn, work, connect, make decisions, and use resources. At the same time, the physical infrastructure behind AI requires energy, water, materials, and space.
The Rithm Project’s recent work argues that some of the most important questions about AI and young people are not only technological, but also about identity, relationships, learning, trust, and opportunity.
Possible Driving Question
How should we shape AI so that it strengthens people and communities without creating unacceptable human or environmental costs?
Two Connected Lenses
STEM: What does our AI future require from the physical and natural world?
Possible areas:
Energy and resource use
Data centers
Water/cooling
Environmental impact
Chemical reactions/energy transformations
Cellular energy and living systems
Mathematical modeling and data analysis
Humanities: What does our AI future require from us as humans and communities?
Possible areas:
Identity and agency
Human connection
Learning and critical thinking
Trust and misinformation
Equity and access
Historical technological turning points
Regulation, economics, and public policy
Rhetoric around AI: promise vs. fear
The Rithm Project organizes its current AI/youth research around five areas: human-to-self, human-to-human, human-to-synthetic, human-to-knowledge, and human-to-institutions.
What Students Might Actually Do
Students could:
Investigate a real AI-related question they care about
Analyze data and competing claims
Conduct experiments or build/test prototypes
Collect student/community perspectives
Examine historical parallels
Evaluate economic, environmental, and social tradeoffs
Develop and revise an evidence-based recommendation or solution
Wednesdays
Rather than recreating four separate classes, Wednesdays could become Project Studio / Lab Days.
Students might rotate or move between:
Research · Data · Science Lab · Design/Build · Humanities · Critique/Revision
The Real World Learning Lab could support prototyping, experimentation, fabrication, and project development.
Possible Authentic Product
Students develop a Youth AI Futures Proposal answering:
What should schools, communities, technology companies, or policymakers do to create a healthier and more responsible AI future?
Possible formats could include:
policy proposal
prototype
youth-facing tool or resource
public campaign
research brief
interactive exhibit
design recommendation
The final audience could potentially include The Rithm Project, Da Vinci leaders, community members, educators, technologists, and families.
Why This Could Be Authentic
The Rithm Project specifically argues that young people are too often treated as subjects of AI research rather than collaborators, and that youth should help shape the questions being asked about their own lives.
That means our students would not simply be “learning about AI.” They could contribute their perspectives to questions that researchers and educators are actively trying to understand.