Conflict on the Menu

Description

At a casual dinner party, the conversation shifts to a recent AI failure and everyone jumps in with their own perspective. What starts as a relaxed chat quickly gets tense as people talk over each other, get defensive, and feel unheard. The discussion shifts from AI to defending our disciplines, and the energy drops into frustration and awkward silence. Things turn around when they stop debating whether AI makes us smarter or dumber and instead ask how it can support judgment, safety, and ethical decision-making in each field. That reframing opens real dialogue, and we realize the conflict wasn’t really about AI, it was about our different assumptions and values. Once that is seen, the conversation becomes collaborative again, showing how easily misunderstandings happen in interdisciplinary group and how dialogue can turn conflict into shared understanding.