By Maya Raphael, DFI Scholar

As a cognitive science student at Pitzer College, I’m regularly immersed in conversations about AI, including its limits, its consequences, its capabilities. And truthfully, whether during dinner table chatter or classroom debate, I tend to instinctively resist the sweepingly apocalyptic sentiments that so routinely arise. I haven’t embraced blind optimism, nor have I bought into capitalistic techno-optimism. In Summer 2025, through my work as a DFI Scholar at the Digital Futures Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University, I was able to pinpoint my approach to AI: curiosity. This trait guides my personal outlook on AI, and my work at DFI, which centered on two questions: What does it mean to be fluent in AI? And how can we measure it?

At DFI, I helped launch the early stages of a research initiative on AI fluency. Most existing literature focuses primarily on AI literacy, which more narrowly refers to a foundational understanding of the technology and capacity for basic usage. Fluency goes further, emphasizing the strategic and critical use of AI tools across diverse contexts (Rogers & Carbonaro, 2025). 

In “From Understanding to Creating: Bridging AI Literacy and AI Fluence in K-12 Education,”  in which Rogers and Carbonaro discuss both AI literacy and AI fluency, the authors note that “...fluency represents a higher-order competency built upon a solid foundation of literacy” (p. 30). In other words, fluency recognizes the rapidly shifting landscape of AI and emphasizes the necessity of cultivating a dynamic, adaptive skill set, one equipped with the tools to think critically and creatively about the technology. The inclusion of fluency within AI frameworks, as both a distinction from and expansion of literacy, signals a shift toward a more dynamic, multidimensional view of technological competence.

The long-term goal of the project I assisted with at DFI is to develop a framework for identifying and fostering AI fluency. Why? Because without a reliable measure, we lack the clarity to identify what it means to effectively engage with AI across varied learning environments. We need this conceptual anchor to design instruction that ensures the technology enhances, rather than obstructs, critical thinking and adaptability. 

I see pursuing an understanding of fluency as a way to find our footing amid technological uncertainty. However, the scope of this research is just beginning, and I don’t believe we are at the point yet where we have a universal, ethically sound framework for integrating AI into our daily lives. 

For example, the range of experiences I’ve had with AI as a college student is broad. Some people I know have never touched ChatGPT and don’t plan to. Others use chatbots daily and have an undeniable academic and professional reliance on them. Similarly, I have professors who require two-page justifications to use AI, threatening failure otherwise. Others passionately encourage regular use, warning that avoidance means falling behind.

The lack of consensus is daunting. 

The human-AI relationship is bidirectional, yet many seem to respond passively—with complacency, resignation, or anxiety. But our response to artificial intelligence is one of the few variables within our control. 

Fluency allows us to uphold our end of the dialogue. If we know how to engage with these algorithms effectively while maintaining a deeply critical awareness, we will be less likely to be dulled or have key skills rendered obsolete. To engage with AI out of fear or convenience, or to avoid it completely, challenges us all at a time when we may need to engage with it constructively the most. So, to those wary about AI, I urge you: Experiment with it. Be curious. Conscious engagement is not a surrender to the machine, nor a bow to techno-utopianism or the illusion of inevitability. It is a pursuit of fluency with technologies deeply impacting our world.

AI Transparency Statement

As an effort to promote AI awareness and transparency, this statement discloses how I used AI in writing this article. I used ChatGPT to assist in brainstorming the article's direction and outline, drafting initial iteration, and proofreading to ensure clarity and cohesion. All AI contributions were always guided, verified, and refined by me at each stage.