“AI Is Our Choice”: A Youth-Led Feature Highlights Sefidanis’ Message on Responsible, Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence

On 14 March 2024, the Macedonian youth media platform Medium published a short feature carrying a clear, memorable thesis: artificial intelligence is not a destiny imposed on society, but a system shaped—positively or negatively—by the way people design, train, and govern it. medium.edu.mk

The article, authored by high-school students Izabela Gjurchinovski and Vasilka Kartalova from “Kocho Racin” in Veles, draws on reflections from Prof. Dr. Anis Sefidanis, positioning AI as a global phenomenon that is already touching “every segment of social life” and reaching all corners of the world in real time through the internet. medium.edu.mk The students’ framing is deliberately balanced: they emphasize the scale of opportunity, while also pointing to risk, workforce disruption, and ethical dilemmas that require deliberate choices rather than passive optimism. medium.edu.mk

From Sefidanis’ perspective in the same piece, the central technical point is that AI is not an autonomous “force” separate from human intent—it is a product of data, algorithms, and communication. In his words, if we learn to create appropriate data and communicate effectively, AI can “understand us better,” and even learn patterns that resemble empathy and care for what people care about. medium.edu.mk That statement is particularly relevant in the present moment, where the public’s day-to-day AI contact is increasingly mediated through conversational systems and digital assistants, making “how we teach AI to behave” a practical question—especially in education, customer service, healthcare-adjacent information systems, and public communication. medium.edu.mk+1

The Medium feature also introduces a core principle that aligns with internationally recognized governance frameworks: society’s relationship with AI must be collective, proactive, and structured to amplify benefits while constraining misuse. medium.edu.mk This direction is echoed by UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, which places human rights, dignity, transparency, fairness, and human oversight at the center of responsible AI deployment. UNESCO+1 Likewise, the OECD AI Principles—first adopted in 2019 and updated in 2024—promote trustworthy, human-centred AI, emphasizing transparency, robustness, safety, and accountability. OECD+1

The significance of this message is amplified by the speed and scale of AI’s expansion. A widely cited market projection estimates a compound annual growth rate of 38.1% for the AI market between 2022 and 2030—an indicator of both accelerating innovation and the increasing urgency of responsible design choices. GlobeNewswire Stanford HAI’s AI Index reporting has also highlighted ongoing gaps in standardized responsible-AI evaluation and disclosure, reinforcing why public understanding and governance maturity must evolve alongside technical capability. Stanford HAI+1

Within North Macedonia, Sefidanis has communicated a consistent view across multiple public appearances: AI should be treated as a transformational technology comparable in societal impact to electricity—yet one whose risks largely arise from misuse, misunderstanding, or weak governance rather than from the tool itself. OhridNews In a 2023 interview with OhridNews, he described AI as a driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and argued that its purpose is to enhance humanity rather than replace it, stressing interdisciplinary thinking and an emphasis on human needs, impulses, and emotions if AI is to coexist with people in future cities. OhridNews

This continuity matters because it clarifies that the March 2024 Medium feature is not a standalone quote, but part of a broader public narrative: Sefidanis’ emphasis on responsible training (“how we feed it”), on the limits of purely “technical” approaches, and on preserving human emotional intelligence as a distinct, non-substitutable dimension of society. medium.edu.mk+1 In a later 2025 interview, he extends the same idea through a vivid metaphor—robots as “pets” that must be “tamed” through what people teach them, including empathy and ethics—again grounding the future of human–AI coexistence in design choices and social responsibility. Убавина и здравје

For Sefidanis, the practical implication is straightforward: as AI systems become more embedded in communication, education, culture, and public life, the critical question is no longer whether AI will expand, but whether societies will shape it with maturity—through better data practices, transparent objectives, safety-by-design, and ethical guardrails that preserve human agency. medium.edu.mk+2UNESCO+2 The Medium feature’s youth perspective reinforces an important point for the next generation: AI literacy is not only about learning tools, but about learning responsibility.

References and original publication dates

1. Medium.edu.mk — “Вештачката интелигенција е наш избор – како ќе ја храниме, така ќе се однесува” — 14.03.2024. medium.edu.mk
2. OhridNews — “Проф д-р Анис Сефиданис во ‘Напладне’: Вештачката интелигенција ќе го трансформира светот” — 01.05.2023 (20:49). OhridNews
3. Ubavina i Zdravje — “Поглед кон иднината со д-р Анис Сефиданис: ‘Роботите се како миленичиња…’” — 09.10.2025. Убавина и здравје
4. Precedence Research (via GlobeNewswire release) — AI market growth projection (CAGR 38.1% from 2022 to 2030) — 19.04.2022. GlobeNewswire
5. UNESCO — Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (global normative instrument) — adopted 23.11.2021; UNESCO explainer page updated 26.09.2024. OHCHR+1
6. OECD — OECD AI Principles / Recommendation of the Council on AI — adopted 2019; OECD notes update in 2024. OECD+1
7. Stanford HAI — The 2024 AI Index Report (responsible-AI reporting standardization concerns) — 2024. Stanford HAI+1