AI Ethics Now

20. AI and Grief: When Death Becomes a Business Model

Content note: This episode contains discussion of bereavement, pregnancy loss, and references to suicide. Please take care when listening. What happens when grief becomes a product? When the people we've lost are turned into data? And who are AI resurrection services really designed to serve - the bereaved, or the bottom line? In this episode, Alfrun Rose [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfrun-rose-a0b75432/], writer, performer, and the creative force behind Dead Air [https://greenwichtheatre.org.uk/events/dead-air/], a darkly comic solo show that has been turning heads since its acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and is now playing at Greenwich Theatre, London, 13 to 16 May 2026, joins the podcast to explore what happens when death becomes a business model. Inspired by her own experience of losing her father, Alfrun describes how she fell into researching real-world AI tools that claim to keep the conversation going after death. Dead Air is the result, not just theatre, but a timely interrogation of who these tools are really serving, and at what cost to people processing grief. We discuss the predatory marketing of AI grief services, the dangers of sycophantic design, what "temperature control" reveals about the illusion of connection, the thin line between therapeutic tool and exploitative product, and why Alfrun made the deliberate choice to create a show about AI without using any AI at all. AI Ethics Now Exploring the ethical dilemmas of AI in Higher Education and beyond. A University of Warwick IATL Podcast This podcast series was developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills, the module leads of the ⁠ at the University of Warwick. The ⁠⁠⁠⁠IATL module ⁠"The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/iatlugmodules/theairevolutionethicstechnologyandsociety/]⁠ module explores the history, current state, and potential futures of artificial intelligence, examining its profound impact on society, individuals, and the very definition of 'humanness.' This podcast was initially designed to provide a deeper dive into the key themes explored each week in class. We want to share the discussions we have had to help offer a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence to a wider audience. Join each fortnight for new critical conversations on AI Ethics with local, national, and international experts. We will discuss: * Ethical Dimensions of AI: Fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability * Societal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanity * The Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanity If you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

19. AI and Inclusive Clinical Education: Levelling the Playing Field or Reinforcing the Bias?

Can generative AI help create fairer healthcare training, or will it simply amplify the inequities already baked into clinical education? And what happens when the shortcuts we reach for in curriculum development undo years of hard-won progress on inclusive practice? In this episode, Ban Haider [https://profiles.sgul.ac.uk/ban-haider] and Saskia Walker, both senior lecturers at City St George's, University of London [https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/], discuss their work examining generative AI in clinical education through the lens of EDI and inclusive practice. Ban brings a critical perspective rooted in concerns about bias and representation, while Saskia brings an optimistic one, shaped in part by her own experience as a dyslexic academic who saw AI's levelling potential from the start. Together, they make a compelling case for why the inclusion conversation needs to be at the centre of how healthcare educators adopt AI, not bolted on afterwards. They discuss using AI to generate diverse patient vignettes, the risk of stereotypical outputs when prompts aren't carefully constructed, awarding gaps, neurodivergence and academic anxiety, the danger of AI models being trained on AI-generated content, and why university policies around AI use need to catch up with the reality of how people actually work and learn. AI Ethics Now Exploring the ethical dilemmas of AI in Higher Education and beyond. A University of Warwick IATL Podcast This podcast series was developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills, the module leads of the ⁠ at the University of Warwick. The ⁠⁠⁠IATL module ⁠"The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/iatlugmodules/theairevolutionethicstechnologyandsociety/]⁠ module explores the history, current state, and potential futures of artificial intelligence, examining its profound impact on society, individuals, and the very definition of 'humanness.' This podcast was initially designed to provide a deeper dive into the key themes explored each week in class. We want to share the discussions we have had to help offer a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence to a wider audience. Join each fortnight for new critical conversations on AI Ethics with local, national, and international experts. We will discuss: * Ethical Dimensions of AI: Fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability * Societal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanity * The Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanity If you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

18. AI and Co-Intelligence: Beyond Prompts to Critical Partnership

Is the biggest danger of AI not the technology itself, but how unreflectively we use it? And what does it actually mean to be the "human in the loop" when that concept remains frustratingly vague? Valentina Vlasova [https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentina-vlasova-a1846457/] and Dr Kevin Coffey [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kevin-coffey-fhea-8169221a7/], senior lecturers at OMNES Education London [https://www.linkedin.com/school/omneseducation/], discuss the Co-Intelligence and AI Literacy module they designed after witnessing widespread unreflective AI use among their students. Drawing on Ethan Mollick's Co-Intelligence [https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d6ba228fbe7652c8e2f5e7276b2b59f7bd45b4c8d83ca63aa6d3f179d799170fJmltdHM9MTc3NTg2NTYwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=221fd6fa-7796-6d05-24c1-c00176c46cdc&psq=ethan+mollick+co+intelligence&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYW1hem9uLmNvbS9Dby1JbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2UtTGl2aW5nLVdvcmtpbmctRXRoYW4tTW9sbGljay9kcC8wNTkzNzE2NzFY] and the concept of co-thinking [https://a-i.swiss/guides/co-thinking-in-action] introduced by AI Swiss in 2025, they've built a course that goes far beyond prompt engineering to ask deeper questions about how humans and AI can genuinely collaborate. Valentina and Kevin share how they teach students to identify cultural, linguistic, and gender biases in AI outputs, including a classroom exercise that reveals how ChatGPT categorises ambition and management as male, and home and childcare as female. They discuss why bias in AI doesn't just reflect the world as it is, but amplifies it, creating a vicious cycle that's difficult to break. We explore the concept of embodied intelligence (what humans bring that AI fundamentally cannot) and why AI's inability to say "I don't know" matters more than students initially realise. Kevin and Valentina also reflect on what hasn't worked in the classroom, including how ChatGPT's failure to recognise mental health crisis language had real-world consequences before OpenAI intervened. With 70-80% of their students believing AI will replace their chosen career, this episode is essential listening for anyone thinking about how to prepare the next generation not just to use AI, but to lead it. AI Ethics Now Exploring the ethical dilemmas of AI in Higher Education and beyond. A University of Warwick IATL Podcast This podcast series was developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills, the module leads of the ⁠ at the University of Warwick. The ⁠⁠IATL module ⁠"The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/iatlugmodules/theairevolutionethicstechnologyandsociety/]⁠ module explores the history, current state, and potential futures of artificial intelligence, examining its profound impact on society, individuals, and the very definition of 'humanness.' This podcast was initially designed to provide a deeper dive into the key themes explored each week in class. We want to share the discussions we have had to help offer a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence to a wider audience. Join each fortnight for new critical conversations on AI Ethics with local, national, and international experts. We will discuss: * Ethical Dimensions of AI: Fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability * Societal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanity * The Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanity If you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

17. AI and Amplification: Beyond Automation to Human-Centred Progress

Is AI destined to replace us, or can it help us thrive? And why are we still stuck in the "wow" phase when we should be asking harder questions about implementation? Dr Bryan Reimer [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-reimer/], research scientist at the MIT Age Lab [https://agelab.mit.edu/about-us/people/bryan-reimer/] and co-author of How to Make AI Useful: Moving Beyond the Hype to Real Progress in Business, Society and Life [https://www.bryanreimer.com/book], discusses AI's journey from "wow" to "woah" to "grow", and why most organizations haven't moved past excitement about automation. Bryan argues the real value of AI isn't replacing human capability through automation, but augmenting it through amplification. The question isn't "what can AI automate?" but "how can AI make humans better at what they do?" We discuss AI as doer, assistant, and creator, and why the creator role raises the most ethical concerns right now. When machines generate new information, who owns it? Is machine-assisted design copyrightable? AI doesn't invent – it regresses to the mean – so it's "new, but not new." Bryan shares why AI as assistant is where the real success lies: it leaves ethical responsibility with humans while providing cognitive support. Students aren't just using ChatGPT to write essays, they're using it as an electronic tutor to understand material that wasn't explained clearly in lectures. Education needs to shift from banning AI to teaching both AI-amplified work and fundamental skills. We explore why "success is toxic" for established organizations struggling with AI adoption, why small start-ups can leapfrog traditional leaders, and how lead adopters are flying so fast that laggard may never catch up. Leadership before modern AI will be fundamentally different from leadership going forward. Bryan introduces "cathedral thinking" versus "strip mining" in how we need to build AI systems designed to last decades, not just solve today's problems. AI won't automate away the things we love doing: creativity, art, poetry, music. The goal is amplifying human creativity, not replacing it. Essential listening for anyone navigating AI adoption, wondering whether job loss predictions are overstated, or trying to understand how to make AI actually useful rather than just impressive. AI Ethics Now Exploring the ethical dilemmas of AI in Higher Education and beyond. A University of Warwick IATL Podcast This podcast series was developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills, the module leads of the ⁠ at the University of Warwick. The ⁠IATL module ⁠"The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/iatlugmodules/theairevolutionethicstechnologyandsociety/]⁠ module explores the history, current state, and potential futures of artificial intelligence, examining its profound impact on society, individuals, and the very definition of 'humanness.' This podcast was initially designed to provide a deeper dive into the key themes explored each week in class. We want to share the discussions we have had to help offer a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence to a wider audience. Join each fortnight for new critical conversations on AI Ethics with local, national, and international experts. We will discuss: * Ethical Dimensions of AI: Fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability * Societal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanity * The Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanity If you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

16. AI and Evidence: When Nobody is Accountable

What happens when AI is used to analyse human behaviour and relationships, and the output is treated as reliable evidence in a formal process against another person? Dr Craig Webber [https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5wy8qq/doctor-craig-webber], School Lead for the MA in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton, [https://www.online.southampton.ac.uk/artificial-intelligence-masters-courses?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SL%20%7C%20SOTON%20%7C%20Search%20%7C%20Artificial%20Intelligence%20%7C%20UK%20%7C%20Jun%2026&utm_adgroup=Artificial%20Intelligence%20%7C%20Broad&utm_term=ai%20masters&utm_matchtype=p&utm_device=c&utm_networko&msclkid=f3a5ab08ccfb1c4d6bfcc2ba25630f56&utm_content=Artificial%20Intelligence%20%7C%20Broad] joins the podcast to explore a growing and largely unaddressed risk at the intersection of AI and institutional decision making. Craig introduces a concept with profound implications for anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of a formal process - the confident confabulation. Large language models don't flag uncertainty. They don't interrogate the premise of the question they're asked. They reflect back whatever narrative they're fed, dressed in language that carries the appearance of authority and expertise. The result can be devastating. And the frameworks for accountability when it goes wrong are, at best, underdeveloped. This conversation explores how sycophantic AI reflects back and amplifies the narratives it receives, how AI generated analysis gets laundered into apparently human authored reports, and what it means when confident confabulations enter high stakes processes where people's lives and reputations are at stake. Craig returns throughout to two words. Legitimacy - does the process that produced this output have any genuine claim to being a reliable account of what actually happened? And accountability - when a confident confabulation causes real harm to a real person, who answers for that? Not the AI. Not the platform. Not the person who fed it the narrative and accepted what it reflected back without question. Currently, the answer is nobody. AI Ethics Now Exploring the ethical dilemmas of AI in Higher Education and beyond. A University of Warwick IATL Podcast This podcast series was developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills, the module leads of the ⁠ at the University of Warwick. The IATL module ⁠"The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/iatlugmodules/theairevolutionethicstechnologyandsociety/]⁠ module explores the history, current state, and potential futures of artificial intelligence, examining its profound impact on society, individuals, and the very definition of 'humanness.' This podcast was initially designed to provide a deeper dive into the key themes explored each week in class. We want to share the discussions we have had to help offer a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence to a wider audience. Join each fortnight for new critical conversations on AI Ethics with local, national, and international experts. We will discuss: * Ethical Dimensions of AI: Fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability * Societal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanity * The Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanity If you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.