I had to go back 10 seconds and watch that clip again. My jaw dropped. Did this Ph.D. instructor really just say, “… you should feel shame…”?

The context was a discussion about the use of AI in the university setting. A thing far too new for the average person to have any idea about how it works, let alone how to use it ethically.

Apparently, this professor believed that our feeling around in the dark in search of boundaries warranted a reason to feel shame.

In response to the questions swirling around about the responsible and ethical use of AI, concerns about intellectual honesty rightly abound. But when we begin packaging our concern with shame, we effectively remove joy from learning and replace it with fear.

I observed a group of nursing students take part in a discussion about the use of AI. Their response was eye-opening. The fear in their voices bordered on anger as they rose up in unison against even the mention of it. They were terrified of AI. Not curious. Not willing. Terrified. And not because they were incapable of being open to change, but because their University made them sign a contact that forbade their use of it.

Instead of being offered guidance and training, these students were handed a carte functional on one of the most powerful tools to make itself available for public use since electricity.

What can we say about the future of the nursing profession when the future that is currently taking shape is one that we decline to participate in?

Nurses are leaders. For everyone’s benefit, we should be at the forefront of AI’s adoption, guiding our peers with an ethic of optimism, not fear. An ethic of joy in learning, not shame.

Interested in learning more? For a spacious and thought-provoking discussion on the topic, please visit Emory University’s Conversations from the Edge, Can Bots Replace Nursing: Nursing in the Digital Age.