This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

On the recent wrap-up/predictions panel we had so much fascinating discussion about AI in religion with panelist Beth Singler that I said we should have her back on the show by herself to talk about that, so here she is!

Beth is the Assistant Professor in Digital Religions and co-lead of the Media Existential Encounters and Evolving Technology Lab at the University of Zurich, where she leads projects on religion and AI. As an anthropologist, her research addresses the human, religious, cultural, social, and ethical implications of developments in AI and robotics. She received the 2021 Digital Religion Research Award from the Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies. Her popular science communication work includes a series of award-winning short documentaries on AI. She is co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Religion and AI, and author of Religion and AI: An Introduction, both published last year.

In part 2, we talk about Roko’s Basilisk, which is a concept that changes your life the moment you find out what it is, experiences of AI saying that it’s a God, the reverse Garland test (that’s based on ex Machina), simulation theories starting with Plato’s Cave, more chatbot priests, how Beth does research, and… Battlestar Galactica.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

On the recent wrap-up/predictions panel we had so much fascinating discussion about AI in religion with panelist Beth Singler that I said we should have her back on the show by herself to talk about that, so here she is!

Beth is the Assistant Professor in Digital Religions and co-lead of the Media Existential Encounters and Evolving Technology Lab at the University of Zurich, where she leads projects on religion and AI. As an anthropologist, her research addresses the human, religious, cultural, social, and ethical implications of developments in AI and robotics. She received the 2021 Digital Religion Research Award from the Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies. Her popular science communication work includes a series of award-winning short documentaries on AI. She is co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Religion and AI, and author of Religion and AI: An Introduction, both published last year.

In part 1, we talk about why religion and AI is a thing and what its dimensions are, the influence of science fiction, tropes like End Times, AI used in religious roles, and the Singularity.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

Continuing our exploration of AI in education, I am joined by Nick Potkalitsky, founder of Pragmatic AI Solutions and co-author of AI in Education: A Roadmap For Teacher-Led Transformation. With a doctorate in narrative and rhetorical studies, he leads AI curriculum integration at The Miami Valley School and develops pioneering AI literacy programs. His Substack “Educating AI” offers curriculum guidance and expert insights.

We talk about how AI has landed emotionally for teachers, whether there’s a generational divide in the different reactions teachers have had to AI, how students are using AI tools and the homework problem, the changing landscape of policies in schools, how university requirements are evolving, and the teacher-led transformation of education that Nick foresees.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

Virtually every issue around AI – pro, con, in-between – is reflected in education right now. And teachers are on the front lines of this disruption. So it’s especially important that UNESCO – that’s the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization - has developed an AI Competency Framework for Teachers, and here to talk about that and his other work is the co-author of that framework, Mutlu Cukurova, professor of Learning and Artificial Intelligence at University College London. He investigates human-AI complementarity in education, aiming to address the pressing socio-educational challenge of preparing people for a future with AI systems that will require a great deal more than the routine cognitive skills currently prized by many education systems and traditional approaches to automation with AI. He is part of UCL's Grand Challenges on Transformative Technologies group, was named in Stanford’s Top 2% Scientists List, and is editor of the British Journal of Educational Technology and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.

In part 2, we talk about how the competency framework helps teachers use large language models, intelligent tutoring systems, the distinctions between human and machine intelligence, how to find the place to be human in a world of expanding AI capabilities, and the opportunities for teachers in this world.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

Virtually every issue around AI – pro, con, in-between – is reflected in education right now. And teachers are on the front lines of this disruption. So it’s especially important that UNESCO – that’s the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization - has developed an AI Competency Framework for Teachers, and here to talk about that and his other work is the co-author of that framework, Mutlu Cukurova, professor of Learning and Artificial Intelligence at University College London. He investigates human-AI complementarity in education, aiming to address the pressing socio-educational challenge of preparing people for a future with AI systems that will require a great deal more than the routine cognitive skills currently prized by many education systems and traditional approaches to automation with AI. He is part of UCL's Grand Challenges on Transformative Technologies group, was named in Stanford’s Top 2% Scientists List, and is editor of the British Journal of Educational Technology and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.

We talk about the role of UNESCO with respect to AI in education, societal and ethical issues of large language models in developing countries, the types of competencies assessed in classrooms that are affected by AI, what the AI Competency Framework for Teachers is, and how to use it.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

Few institutions are under as much pressure today as journalism and news publishing, and AI features squarely in the middle of those pressures. Disinformation, social media, automated news generation, the list goes on; we’re talking about the fabric of our information society. Here to help us understand these issues is Neil Brown, former editor and vice president of the Tampa Bay Times while they won six Pulitzers, and president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. For over 50 years Poynter has trained journalists and protected the ethical standards of the industry through mechanisms like the International Fact-Checking Network and the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership. Neil spent four decades as a journalist, launched PolitiFact.com, and was co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board. His mission is to strengthen democracy and confront society's most complex problems by improving the value of journalism and increasing media literacy, so we are very fortunate to have him on the show to field my challenging questions!

We talk about the use of AI in journalism, in writing stories, its effect on our writing standards, different levels of stories in journalism, and the potential use of AI in interactive news publishing.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

Few institutions are under as much pressure today as journalism and news publishing, and AI features squarely in the middle of those pressures. Disinformation, social media, automated news generation, the list goes on; we’re talking about the fabric of our information society. Here to help us understand these issues is Neil Brown, former editor and vice president of the Tampa Bay Times while they won six Pulitzers, and president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. For over 50 years Poynter has trained journalists and protected the ethical standards of the industry through mechanisms like the International Fact-Checking Network and the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership. Neil spent four decades as a journalist, launched PolitiFact.com, and was co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board. His mission is to strengthen democracy and confront society's most complex problems by improving the value of journalism and increasing media literacy, so we are very fortunate to have him on the show to field my challenging questions!

We talk about pressures on news organizations, the evolution of the relationship between journalism and publishing, how revenue models are changing, the impact and use of AI or psychometric analysis tools, and much more.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .

In our last episode of 2024, we have our traditional end of year retrospective/prediction episode. We’ll be taking a look back over the year just ending and forward to 2025, but we’re not going to focus on technology, when GPT-5 is going to drop, etc. The space is already stuffed full of that sort of thing. We’re going to look at the time through an anthropological lens, for which I am rejoined by two former guests, anthropologist Beth Singler, who was in episodes 38 and 39, and philosopher John Zerilli, who was in episodes 78 and 79. Beth is Assistant Professor in Digital Religion(s) and co-lead of the Media Existential Encounters and Evolving Technology Lab at the University of Zurich, where she leads projects on religion and AI. Her most recent books are Religion and Artificial Intelligence and The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Artificial Intelligence. John is a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, with a PhD in cognitive science and philosophy, and carrying out research at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His most recent book, A Citizen’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence, was published in 2021.

We consider how AI has been reshaping public narratives and attitudes over questions like job replacement, creativity, education, law, and religion.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.