Paul Mashatile cautioned against letting technology suppress creativity

Young people should be cautious about how they adopt artificial intelligence to ensure it does not diminish their creativity or cultural identity, South African Vice President Paul Mashatile told Russian students on Friday.

Mashatile spoke at a youth workshop 'The SPIEF Academy' organized by Russia's Roscongress Foundation on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

He described South Africa's investment in youth development programs as a strategy to spur innovation and generate future employment.

"The youth can come up with a lot of new ideas," Mashatile said. "Often you find the youth struggling with employment, but we are seeing the youth themselves can become employers," provided they have access to seed funding.

Mashatile cautioned that AI could have negative effects on a young person's development.

"Artificial intelligence can have a negative impact if it stifles creativity, because it's easy for people to get lazy. You know, these days artificial intelligence can write an essay for you. And that's what we must avoid, particularly for the youth," he said. "We must use artificial intelligence as something that is supportive to our own creativity rather than it taking over."

The vice president added that people using AI for creative purposes should remain rooted in their cultural identities and not be sidetracked by what models generate.

Mashatile praised Russia's history of providing higher education opportunities for African students and said South Africa is also eager to learn from Russia's advances in application of AI technology.

"We are also here to learn from the youth of Russia about what you are doing," he told the audience.

The SPIEF Academy's main goal is to engage students and young professionals in the current agenda of the global economy, technological development, and social change. Its participants are students and young professionals aged 18 to 23 who are enrolled at leading Russian universities.