28/10/2025
OPINION | When Intelligence is Artificial, Truth Becomes Optional
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” physicist Stephen Hawking once warned. “It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded.” After a decade, his statement became less like a premonition and more of a prognostication.
And there was a time when truth was something that we longed for, that was before A.I. existed on our browsers—back when the idea of anything robotic was still considered a threat and disadvantage. Now reality bends to the prompt, and what begins as a personal belief can end as the “new truth”—one where it fits and agrees with the ideology of the majority. In fact, even public officials have been fooled by AI-generated videos circulating online. Our ability to think critically is slowly fading because we are complacent that artificial intelligence is present to replace it.
During this year’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week (Oct 24-31), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) turns its focus on a timely and relevant theme “Minds over AI – MIL in Digital Spaces”. It is a call to rethink how to distinguish what is real and not. Media and Information Literacy is not just a skill anymore, rather a human right in this digital era, because it is the modern form of resistance. To think critically amidst engineered confusion is to refuse any form of manipulation, and to establish integrity in a system built to profit from our ignorance. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expresses that technology should practice serving humanity, prioritizing to foster our critical thinking for further innovations, rather than exposing us to the danger—exploiting and taking advantage of our vulnerability.
Despite the efforts exerted, the results of the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicated that Filipinos are marooned, not only in comprehending simple sentences but also in analytical reasoning. However, the real concern goes beyond the ranking itself—it’s what the numbers imply. Many administrations tried and launched projects that they believed would put this crisis to a permanent end. Instead it only made the problem more transparent. This weakness speaks in two different languages; an educational issue and a democratic plea of assistance.
In the digital era where information is being weaponized, MIL creates a clear boundary between facts and fabrication, reminding humans that artificial intelligence is and will only remain as a tool, we should disregard any misleading marketing strategy that suggests otherwise. The danger is not about AI “outsmarting” us, it’s when we reach to the point where we no longer question it, surrendering our judgement and reality to machines that do not know the difference between this or that. Because truth, in its essence, requires human effort. The courage to investigate, verify, and even doubt what is certain. That is something that no advanced technology can replace.
If artificial intelligence was designed to think faster, then media and information literacy is how we are able to think wiser—it demands us to think with purpose, our rebellion against automation. It is proof that the mind matters more in a world where machines pretend to know better. Our future belongs to the sharpest mind, not to the fastest processor.
Penned by: Mikee Asadi
Graphics by: Denyella Marzon
Published by: Lindsay Santos
