AI is everywhere and we better embrace it

I was scrolling through my phone last night, the blue light washing over my face in the dark room, when it hit me. Another Gaza video, perfectly rendered, emotionally charged—and completely artificial. The algorithm knows what stirs me, what makes me pause and feel. But the feeling itself? That's becoming harder to trust. We've always been storytellers here. On the ferry between islands, in the tea shops of Malé, our voices carry the weight of lived experience. Now algorithms whisper competing narratives, each tailored to provoke, to confirm, to divide. 'Siyaasee nufoozu othas thabaa vaan jeheyne'—political influence isn't just in our parliament anymore. It's in the very information we consume, disguised as truth. The young men at the harbor talk about it sometimes, between unloading crates and watching tourist speedboats glide past. They joke about the AI-generated shorts, the perfect waves that never actually break on our shores, the political commentary that sounds just human enough to be dangerous. One said, 'It's not about threats—it's about who gets to tell our story.' Our reality here is complicated enough without digital ghosts. The cost of living climbs while our currency weakens. Housing in Malé feels like a distant dream for most young people. We watch political appointments multiply while essential medicines disappear from pharmacies. Now we must also question whether the voices we hear online are real at all. Yet there's something stubbornly human that persists. The fisherman who can read the sea better than any algorithm. The grandmother who remembers when this island had no electricity. The way we still gather when someone needs help, despite what any digital divide might suggest. Maybe embracing AI doesn't mean surrendering our stories. Maybe it means becoming more deliberate about what we attach meaning to—the shared meal after prayers, the helping hand during monsoon rains, the quiet understanding between neighbors who've weathered the same political storms for decades. The machines may generate content, but we still get to decide what matters.