Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence and head of the AI Policy Lab at Umeå University, made this comment in Dagens Nyheter on August 3, 2025. She was responding to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who had previously said the following about AI: “I use it myself quite often. If for nothing else than for a second opinion. What have others done? And should we think the complete opposite? Those types of questions.“ The reactions were fierce, most notably the accusation that Kristersson had “fallen for the oligarchs‘ AI psychosis”. As extreme as the criticism was, it revealed something essential: how deeply the public debate around AI is shaped by fear, projection, and ignorance. And how profound the cultural unease becomes when machines are involved in thinking – not secretly, but visibly, consciously, publicly.
Prompt Literacy: Thinking in Motion
So, Ulf Kristersson has faced criticism for his use of AI. (Perhaps rightly so within the political sphere, but that is not our concern here.) Yet why has no one acknowledged his attitude, intentions, and approach to AI? This, in particular, deserves attention: a prime minister who openly admits to using AI. To get a second opinion. To examine what solutions others have found. And to see what perspectives emerge when one thinks through the opposite of a thought. This is not weakness, and certainly it is not a psychosis. This is dialectics in its truest form: thinking in motion. This is: Prompt Literacy.
What will the 21st century sound like?
What seems self-evident to Kristersson goes far beyond a pragmatic approach to new technology. He embodies a new way of thinking and a mindset that can transform our relationship with artificial intelligence. It is a mindset that seeks not control, but insight. It does not primarily seek efficiency from the machine, but co-creation. It does not treat language as a command, but as an instrument – one that orchestrates the human-machine symphony of the 21st century. This sound, this mindset, this way of thinking, and this practice: This is Prompt Literacy.
Language as Interface – Prompt Literacy as a Steering Impulse
The relationship between humans and machines has long been evolving – not only since the rise of artificial intelligence. The industrial revolution already created a new form of interaction: humans no longer merely operated tools but became part of machine-driven processes. With generative AI, the interaction is shifting once again, along with the interface between human and machine: away from levers, buttons, codes and symbols, toward language. Language becomes both a steering impulse and a vector of power. This transformation affects not only the interface and our understanding of language, but also language itself. Its origins reach far back: around two million years ago, early humans began to articulate sounds with intent – to warn, coordinate, and strengthen social bonds.
The Power of Language: Strong
Language has never been merely a tool, never just a means to an end. It connects us to the world, helping us orient ourselves, build relationships, and shape reality. Language is action and reflection, structure and play. It shapes what we perceive, how we understand it – and what we consider possible. In doing so, we create meaning, but also exclusions, omissions, and distortions. When we fall silent, conceal, or distort – through lies, for instance – we shift the edges of what is real. In doing so, we exercise power: not through force, but through meaning. Not loudly and overtly, but quietly and structurally.
Language is Key to the Human-Machine Relationship
In the realm of generative AI, the role of language is shifting. It is used deliberately to produce effects. A single prompt can trigger complex processes; a single word can bring them to a halt. The machine does not respond out of understanding, but by following statistical patterns: rule-based, context-sensitive, and probabilistic. Traditional interfaces relied on binary logic and explicit commands. Prompts in natural language now open up new possibilities for human-machine interaction. Language is ambiguous, context-dependent, and culturally charged. What is said is never just information. It is always also form, tone, and gesture. When communicating with generative AI, it’s not only what we say that matters, but how we say it. Linguistic expression becomes a steering impulse – not only through precision, but through resonance, rhythm, and weighting.
Prompt Literacy as a Space of Resonance
This emerging constellation brings a concept from the margins to the center: Prompt Literacy. It is the ability to interact with AI systems through language – not by issuing commands, but through a nuanced interplay of linguistic skill, media literacy, and ethical awareness. The significance of Prompt Literacy goes far beyond technical efficiency. In the space of resonance, language becomes a force, as the prompts to the machine produce responses without understanding, but with a lot of effect.
A Conscious Dialogue with Systems That Belong to Us
A dialogue emerges that requires no consciousness from the machine but all the more from the human. Not a traditional conversation, but an open-ended process of creating meaning. Prompt Literacy sees this interaction not as a simulation of understanding, but as an invitation to conscious, critical, and responsible co-creation. Taking place in linguistic exchange with systems that possess no language of their own – yet are already woven into our symbolic fabric.
Prompt Literacy as an Expression of a New Language-Culture-Technique
AI is not a new tool – nor is Prompt Literacy. To see artificial intelligence merely as an instrument is to overlook its sociocultural significance. If understood as part of a deeper cultural shift, Prompt Literacy reflects this transformation and gives rise to a new language culture. Its questions are directed not only at the machine, but also at ourselves – not in pursuit of higher output, but of deeper insight. What do we truly expect from this technology? How do we speak when words trigger actions without understanding? What does responsibility mean in a dialogue whose echo is algorithmically generated? And what is real in a world where meaning is no longer given – but generated through prompts?
The World Is (Not) Enough: Mapping Possibility through Prompt Literacy
Prompt Literacy seeks to respond to these questions by beginning before the prompt, unfolding within it, and reflecting beyond it. (And by repeating this process, again and again.) It does not see language as a mere tool, but as a model of the world. As a mapping of possibility. A a gesture of action. A trace of responsibility. Beyond buzzwords. Beyond benchmarks. Beyond best practices. Within a space of resonance. Amplified by machines. Yet imbued with meaning by humans.
