You Have Agency
Scroll through social media and AI has already decided what you see. Walk into a store and cameras may have already analyzed your face. Use a search engine and an algorithm has already ranked which answers you get. It can feel like the world is running on autopilot — and that there is nothing you can do about it. That feeling is wrong. You have more power than you think, and this module is about finding it.
What Agency Actually Means
Agency is the capacity to make choices and take actions that affect the world around you. It does not mean you control everything — no one does. It means you are an active participant rather than a passive bystander. A passenger in a car has very little agency over the journey. A driver has a great deal. AI is still being designed, debated, regulated, and built right now. The people who will live with it most are your generation — which means your generation has the greatest stake in shaping it well.
Agency is a person's power to make their own choices, take deliberate actions, and influence outcomes. Having agency does not mean having total control — it means you are not simply swept along by forces you never examine.
Think about three different ways a student might use an AI writing assistant. The first student pastes in every essay prompt and publishes whatever the AI returns without reading it. The second student refuses to touch AI at all because it feels unfamiliar. The third student uses the AI to brainstorm ideas, then writes the essay herself, then uses the AI again to check her argument's logic. All three students are using the same tool. Only the third one is exercising real agency — using the tool deliberately, staying in control of the outcome, and thinking critically at every step.
Passive User vs. Active Participant
A passive user accepts whatever an AI system produces without questioning it, without understanding it, and without choosing how or when to engage. A passive user is, in the language of technology, just a consumer. An active participant does something different: they bring their own goals to the interaction, they evaluate the output critically, they notice when the AI is wrong or biased, they decide what to do with the result — and they occasionally push back or speak up when something seems off. The difference is not about technical skill. It is about attitude and habit. You do not need to know how to code to be an active participant. You need to stay awake and curious.
Ask three questions every time you use an AI tool: What goal am I trying to accomplish? Is this output actually good for that goal? What is the AI not telling me or getting wrong?
Match each behavior to the role it represents.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Why Right Now Matters
AI systems are not finished products. They are evolving, and the norms, laws, and habits around them are still being written. Who gets hired to build AI? What values get built into it? Which communities get consulted? What should be off limits? None of these questions have permanent answers yet. That means the choices made in the next few years — including by you, your peers, and the adults around you — will shape the AI landscape for decades. History is full of moments where ordinary people changed the direction of powerful technologies. The internet was shaped by the communities who organized online. Environmental laws were shaped by young people who demanded them. You do not have to be a CEO or a senator to matter. You have to show up, stay informed, and act.
If thoughtful, caring people disengage from AI development — saying it is too technical or too complicated — the field gets shaped entirely by whoever remains. Staying engaged, even imperfectly, is better than leaving a vacuum.
Which of the following best describes agency in the context of AI?
A student uses an AI tool to draft an email, then reads it carefully, edits two sentences, and sends it. What does this behavior demonstrate?
Your Agency Audit
- Step 1: List three AI systems or algorithm-driven tools you encountered in the past week — this could include social media feeds, streaming recommendations, search results, autocorrect, or anything else.
- Step 2: For each one, write a sentence describing how you interacted with it. Were you a passive user or an active participant?
- Step 3: For each one, identify one specific thing you could do differently next time to exercise more agency.
- Step 4: Choose the example you care most about and write three sentences about why having agency in that particular interaction matters to you personally.