Human at the Centre
Critical thinking, rights, autonomy
Develop critical thinking, information resilience, an understanding of AI's influence mechanisms, and digital autonomy. The priority module — because the most important skill in the AI era is remaining a thinking, autonomous human being.
Critical Thinking and Lateral Reading
Fact-checking methods used by professional journalists — applied to everyday information.
Learning goal
Learn to verify information using lateral reading: instead of reading a source deeply, you check what other reliable sources say about it.
Real scenario
A journalist must decide whether to publish a viral quote attributed to a politician. A parent receives alarming medical news in a family group chat. An elected official is given statistics they are asked to cite publicly.
What you gain
You can trace claims to primary sources, compare coverage across outlets, and distinguish verified information from plausible-sounding speculation — in under three minutes.
Who Builds AI and on Whose Data
The political economy of generative AI: who builds it, on whose data, in whose interest.
Learning goal
Understand that AI systems are not neutral — they reflect the choices, values, and interests of those who build and fund them.
Real scenario
A freelance writer discovers that the writing tool they use daily was trained on their own published work without consent or compensation. A manager evaluates two AI procurement options — one European, one American.
What you gain
You can evaluate whose interests a given AI system serves, understand the geopolitics of AI development, and make more informed choices about which tools to use and trust.
Privacy and Data Rights
What you share with AI tools, where your data goes, and what GDPR actually protects.
Learning goal
Understand the data flows involved in using public AI services, and know your rights as a European citizen.
Real scenario
A healthcare professional enters patient details into a public chatbot to draft a report. An HR manager pastes confidential salary data into an AI summariser. A lawyer uses an AI tool to draft a client communication.
What you gain
You can assess the privacy risks of any AI tool before using it, know what questions to ask vendors, and understand which uses of AI are incompatible with GDPR obligations.
Deepfakes and Synthetic Content
How to recognise AI-generated images, audio, and video — and why visual intuition is not enough.
Learning goal
Develop a systematic habit of questioning the origin of media content, rather than relying on visual detection alone.
Real scenario
An NGO receives a video purportedly showing environmental destruction at a specific location. A voter sees a clip of a candidate appearing to make a controversial statement. A teacher is sent what appears to be a photo of their students.
What you gain
You know the common markers of synthetic content, understand why they are unreliable indicators, and have built the habit of always asking: where did this come from, and can I verify the chain of publication?
Hallucinations, Biases, and False Confidence
Why AI generates plausible-sounding false information with total apparent confidence — and what to do about it.
Learning goal
Understand the structural reasons why AI systems produce errors, and build verification habits proportionate to the stakes.
Real scenario
A student submits a research paper citing ten academic sources — all generated by an AI, none of which exist. A civil servant uses an AI summary of a legal text that has subtly misrepresented one key clause.
What you gain
You systematically verify AI-generated information before acting on it, especially citations, statistics, proper names, and legal or medical claims — and you understand why confident presentation is not a quality signal.
Psychological and Cognitive Influence
How habitual AI use affects attention, memory, independent reasoning — and what healthy use looks like.
Learning goal
Develop awareness of your own AI use patterns and maintain the cognitive capacities that AI tends to replace.
Real scenario
A manager notices they can no longer draft a short email without AI assistance. A student realises they have stopped reading long texts because AI summaries feel sufficient. A professional finds their decisions increasingly shaped by AI recommendations they do not scrutinise.
What you gain
You can identify your own dependency patterns, distinguish productive AI assistance from cognitive outsourcing, and maintain your capacity for autonomous reasoning and deep reading.
Human at the Centre
CC BY-SA 4.0 · Metodiem