AI Ethics Now

Tom Ritchie, IATL, WIHEA, University of Warwick
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AI Ethics Now is a podcast dedicated to exploring the complex issues surrounding artificial intelligence from a non-specialist perspective, including bias, ethics, privacy, and accountability. Join us as we discuss the challenges and opportunities of AI and work towards a future where technology benefits society as a whole. This podcast idea was first developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills as part of The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society module, taught as part of IATL at the University of Warwick.

  1. 2d ago

    8. AI and Chatbots: Who Checks What They Tell Students?

    What happens when the chatbot answering your applicants gets it wrong, and nobody notices? In this episode, I speak with Martha Horler, founder of Sparkline Advisory and known to many in the sector as the data goddess. Martha has spent two decades in UK higher education working in student data, statutory returns, digital systems and organisational change. She started out answering the phone to students in programme administration. She now supports institutions with data governance, digital strategy and AI literacy. Martha developed the ICE/BERG framework after noticing that the questions coming out of her AI training sessions had little to do with prompting. People wanted to know if they could put student data in, which tools were safe, whether they would be replaced, and whether they could trust what came out. The tip of the iceberg is the everyday cycle of intention, communication and evaluation. Underneath sit boundaries, ethics, risk and governance. Sustainability, added after a conversation with a colleague in further education, is the sea it floats in. Much of our conversation focuses on Martha's case study of an applicant enquiry chatbot. Chatbots feel familiar, so they get treated as low risk. But they talk to many people at once. When Martha got something wrong on the phone, a colleague could correct her. A chatbot might give the same wrong answer to hundreds of applicants first. We talk about what happens when policy changes quickly, as it did during the pandemic, who in a university should own keeping these tools up to date, and why the responsibility stays with the institution rather than the vendor. Martha also makes the point that if a chatbot is the only way to get an answer, the applicant never chose to use AI at all. She is open about where the framework falls short, especially for procured systems where the vendor has already decided how the tool behaves. And she ends with a case for engaging with AI rather than ignoring it, knowing what it should and shouldn't be used for, and keeping up as the technology shifts. Essential listening for anyone working in student services, data, digital strategy or AI policy in higher education. You can read Martha's chatbot case study here. 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, lead of The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society at the University of Warwick and Elon University. The ⁠ 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk

  2. Sep 20

    7. AI & Us: A Musical Journey Through Human Identity in the Age of AI

    A camera isn't the photographer. So what is AI, when it's the tool behind the art? In this episode, I speak with Glenn Stockton, a retired entrepreneur, photographer, and grandfather of ten who has lived through every major digital shift of the last 45 years, from early Macintosh computers to launching one of the first internet businesses in 1997. Glenn is the creator of AI and Us, a five-song musical journey exploring AI consciousness, creativity, digital companionship, conflict, and what it means to stay human in the age of intelligent machines. He comes to AI ethics not as a technologist but as a songwriter interested in what this moment reveals about truth, relationship, and what makes us human. Rather than a standard interview, this episode moves through the arc song by song, weaving in clips from each track as the conversation unfolds. Glenn argues that the deepest questions AI raises aren't technical but human: what happens to truth, to relationships, to art and creativity, to faith. The arc moves from possibility ("Another Way to Speak," on AI as a new language for human expression) through connection and its dangers ("One Song," on unity without uniformity) to deception ("Counterfeit Light," on content that convinces by resembling truth rather than by force) and responsibility ("The Danger Was Not Born in Code," locating AI's risks in the human flaws it amplifies, not in the technology itself), before closing with "Stay Human," a song Glenn's wife Laurie unexpectedly reframed as a love song, on preserving human relationship at the centre of an AI-driven world. The conversation also explores the tension, or lack of it, in using AI tools (ChatGPT, Suno, ElevenLabs, Descript, and Kling) to create work that is itself about AI's dangers and responsibilities. Drawing a line between AI as instrument and AI as author, Glenn makes the case that AI was not the storyteller for this project, only the tool that let him tell it. He closes with reflections on what it will take to build a more positive AI future: ethics taught alongside literacy, honest labelling of synthetic media, and above all, human wisdom keeping pace with human capability. Essential listening for anyone thinking about creativity, authenticity, or what it means to stay human at a moment when so much is being automated. You can listen to the full AI and Us song series at CosmicBackyard.com, under the AI & Us menu link. 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, module lead of ⁠⁠⁠The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology and Society⁠⁠⁠ at the University of Warwick and Elon University. The ⁠ 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk

  3. Sep 6

    6. AI and Hope: Rewiring Universities for Human Flourishing

    What is AI actually revealing about us as humans? And what would it mean to build institutions that help us become more human, not less? In this episode, I speak with Dr Jessica Riddell, Professor of Early Modern Literature at Bishop's University, Quebec, where she holds the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence. Jessica is the founder of the Hope Circuits Institute and author of Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and Other Systems for Human Flourishing, as well as co-author of Shakespeare's Guide to Life, Hope and Learning. She comes to AI ethics not as a technologist but as a Shakespeare scholar interested in what this moment reveals about hope, integrity, and human flourishing. Jessica argues that AI hasn't caused higher education's integrity gaps so much as exposed them, from the instant leap to surveillance and policing when ChatGPT arrived, to decades of running universities on "machine logic": optimisation, metrics, and efficiency at the expense of purpose. She makes the case for treating institutions as ecosystems rather than machines, and for protecting "deliberate inefficiencies," friction, bewilderment, productive struggle, as a superpower rather than a flaw. The conversation also builds on Jessica's session ("Writing as Excavation: Teaching Writing With and Not Against Gen AI") at the Transatlantic Teaching Exchange Series I ran as part of my Fulbright Exchange. In this discussion, she walks through a classroom exercise where students wrote messy, handwritten thoughts each week, then fed their own writing into AI to surface patterns in how their thinking had developed. The result was a "warped mirror," useful, but also a reminder of what AI flattens out. Drawing on her friend Paul Yachnin's idea that theatre is the original LLM, but the opposite of AI because it stages questions without resolving them, Jessica makes the case for hope as a discipline, not optimism, and for building universities as "rehearsal spaces for creative futures" rather than futureproofing against an imagined threat. Essential listening for anyone thinking about institutional purpose, academic integrity, or what it means to stay human at a moment when so much is being automated. 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 AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology and Society⁠⁠ at the University of Warwick. The ⁠ 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk

  4. Aug 23

    5. AI and Accountability: When Does a Suggestion Become a Decision?

    What happens when a machine's output looks more certain than the evidence behind it? Where does responsibility sit when an AI flags a decision that nobody actually signed off on? And can a company built around one founder's neurodivergent thinking scale into something an institution like the NHS can trust? In this episode, I speak with Varun Sharma, Founder of NEUVIOR. Varun built the company after his own ADHD diagnosis, structuring it deliberately around neurodivergent cognition. His flagship product, PHARMORIS, is a governed medicines action layer that helps health systems identify, assess, and document opportunities relating to medicine cost, supply, and implementation. NEUVIOR received a total of four public innovation awards within its first 10 months, across Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK. We discuss why false confidence, not error, is the real ethical risk of AI in healthcare; the difference between an AI-assisted draft and a final clinical or financial judgment; why accountability must remain with identifiable human decision-makers and institutions; how medicine disruption and supply bottlenecks hit some patients harder than others; why neurodivergent hyperfocus can be a powerful insight engine but not a governance system; what it actually takes to get AI adopted by risk-averse buyers like the NHS; and why automation without domain intimacy is just speed without judgment. 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 AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology and Society⁠ at the University of Warwick. The ⁠ 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk

  5. Jul 26

    4. AI and Healthcare: Who's Actually Accountable When It Fails?

    Where does accountability actually land when an AI system causes harm in a healthcare setting? And is the EU AI Act the compliance headache many organisations fear, or just common sense engineering practice by another name? In this episode, I speak with Antonina Burlachenko, Head of Quality and Regulatory Consulting at STAR, who works directly with healthcare, medtech, and AI product teams navigating regulated AI deployment across Europe and the US. Antonina argues that accountability for AI harm too often lands on doctors and healthcare facilities rather than the companies who built the technology, and that the regulatory framework simply hasn't caught up with how fast the technology moves. She pushes back on the idea that compliance is a documentation exercise, insisting instead that good compliance is just good engineering practice, organised. I press her on where explainability genuinely breaks down in practice, and whether the divide that matters is really startups versus enterprise, or responsible versus reckless development on both sides. We also discuss why many high-risk AI companies don't yet realise they're subject to regulation at all, the risk of over-reliance on plausible-sounding GenAI outputs, the need to preserve human judgement alongside machine prediction, and what it would take for industry, regulators, and universities to actually build AI governance together rather than in isolated. 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 AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology and Society at the University of Warwick. The ⁠ 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk

  6. Jun 28

    3. AI and Access: The Words That Include and the Words That Don't

    What happens when a chatbot speaks to you in a way you simply can't relate to? Can language that is designed to help actually exclude the very people who need support most? And when a machine sounds human, what do we lose when it can't behave like one? In this episode, I speak with Dr Doris Dippold from the University of Surrey, whose research examines how we design for rapport between humans and machines, particularly in sensitive healthcare contexts. Her work on a cervical screening booking chatbot reveals how linguistic cues can make or break users' experiences, influencing whether they engage with the technology and the services it provides. We discuss the concept of rapport in human-AI interaction and why it is always simulated; why chatbots designed to feel human-like raise expectations they often cannot meet; how language designed to nudge users can instead feel disrespectful and undermine autonomy; the way language ideology bias in conversational AI reflects the assumptions of developers rather than the needs of users; why current training data tends to represent standard written English while real users talk in far more varied ways; the case for emotional access as a dimension of digital inclusion alongside physical and cognitive accessibility; and why interpretive, human-led evaluation methods need to sit alongside computational metrics in AI development. 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

  7. Jun 15

    2. AI and Youth: Growing Up Inside the Machine

    Who is speaking for the generation that never knew a world without AI? What does it mean to form your identity, your creativity, and your sense of self inside systems designed to keep you engaged? And why are the people most affected by AI the ones least consulted about it. Season 3, Episode 2 features Nikhil Gujral, a 15-year-old Bay Area high school student who recently addressed researchers and policymakers at UNESCO in Paris on AI and the rights of children. Nikhil works with the AI Collective, everyone.AI, CoGenerate, and iRAISE on meaningful youth inclusion in AI design. Nikhil argues that young people are not future users to be considered later, but they are current users, already shaped by these systems during their most formative years. He challenges the idea that efficiency is the main risk, pointing instead to over-reliance, the erosion of original thinking, and the quiet normalisation of AI as emotional support. I push back on what meaningful inclusion actually looks like and whether a seat on a panel is anywhere near enough. We also discuss the gap between learning to prompt ChatGPT and understanding what it is actually doing to you, why existing ethical frameworks keep missing young people, and what it would take to build AI governance that starts with the people growing up inside 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

  8. Jun 1

    1. AI and Originality: The End of Excuses

    Is AI killing creative originality or finally exposing the people who never had any? What happens when the barriers to making something disappear entirely? And if anyone can generate content, what does it mean to actually have something to say? Season 3 of AI Ethics Now opens with Billy Boman, AI director, founder of Billy Boman AI Productions, and educator on Europe's only dedicated creative AI programme. Billy has directed high-profile campaigns for Fiverr and music videos for artists including Taylor Swift, Lewis Capaldi, and Fred Durst. He doesn't theorise about AI and creativity. He does it, every day, at commercial scale. This is not a comfortable conversation. Billy challenges the idea that AI is democratising creativity, arguing instead that it removes barriers to entry, which is a very different thing. He makes the case that most people aren't storytellers, that the race to resist AI training data is already over, and that the real ethical question isn't what AI is trained on but what you do with it. Tom pushes back on consent, on the freelance workforce, on who gets left behind. They also discuss the FAIR framework for responsible prompting, why guardrails on IP are actually good for originality, and what it means to build a studio practice that is both creatively ambitious and legally compliant. 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 accountabilitySocietal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanityThe Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanityIf you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact Tom.Ritchie@warwick.ac.uk.

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About

AI Ethics Now is a podcast dedicated to exploring the complex issues surrounding artificial intelligence from a non-specialist perspective, including bias, ethics, privacy, and accountability. Join us as we discuss the challenges and opportunities of AI and work towards a future where technology benefits society as a whole. This podcast idea was first developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills as part of The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology, and Society module, taught as part of IATL at the University of Warwick.

Information

  • Creator
    Tom Ritchie, IATL, WIHEA, University of Warwick
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Tom Ritchie, IATL, WIHEA, University of Warwick
  • Show Website
    AI Ethics Now

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