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 and Dr Kevin Coffey, senior lecturers at OMNES Education London, 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 and the concept of co-thinking 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"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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.