Does AI magnify privilege ❔
My frustration with AI is rising. Not about my personal use. I use it daily, extensively, and in quite sophisticated ways.
What is bothering me is something else: I am increasingly seeing that AI is a highly exclusive tool. It magnifies privilege.
That’s a bold statement, especially if you are not part of a privileged community. Let me explain how I got there.
At StrengthMiner® Consulting LLP, we work with large multinational clients, some of whom position themselves at the forefront of embedding AI into their processes, offerings, products, and services. Impressive, one would think.
We are not passive observers. We integrate AI-based exercises into our workshops and training sessions. The results are sobering. I would say that well over 75% of participants have either not used AI to improve their personal effectiveness, or they do so at a very rudimentary level. Many have not configured their tools. Many do not understand the basics of prompting.
There is a German proverb: “Wie man in den Wald hinein ruft, so schallt es heraus.”, literally translated: “How you shout into the woods is how it echoes back.” This is not quite the same as “you reap what you sow.” It is more specific. It speaks about how you express yourself.
And that is exactly the point with LLMs. They are language systems. The way you interact with them fundamentally shapes what you get in return.
So what happens if you engage with them in broken English, with limited vocabulary, without the right conceptual terms? Or more critically: when you don’t know what you don’t know? The quality of your output is directly tied to the quality of your input. And the quality of your input depends on your mastery of language, your conceptual clarity, and your level of education. Which, in turn, is deeply tied to privilege.
I see this every week: people prompting without depth of thinking, without precision, without awareness of the underlying concepts.
And then we wonder why AI “doesn’t work.” It does. Just not equally for everyone