Ethics of artificial intelligence

or intervene in its personality at their whim.

And so one of the things that, you know, it seems pretty ridiculous, and it certainly seemed ridiculous, you know, 20, 30 years ago, is that the idea that there might be a day where robot rights is something we can actually talk about, I think that we're a long way away from that.

But nonetheless, it's not unthinkable, and it is possibly a possibility fertile ground for science fiction writers to plow.

That's another developing theme in your collection is the dependent AIs in your stories are property.

And so I do think that right now, thinking about the ethics of this is very important.

You know, at the website at Reasons to Believe, they wrote an article called Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.

And they said, quote, AI is neither good nor evil.

It's a tool shaped by the values and intentions of those who create it, unquote.

Welcome to the Mindful CIO Podcast.

This season, we focus on building trust, culture, and capability for responsible AI adoption.

Together, we will explore what it takes for CIOs and technology leaders to implement AI in a way that balances speed with governance, innovation with accountability, and performance with long-term value.

If you are navigating the complexity of AI inside your organization, you are in the right place.

Let's get started.

Hello and welcome to the Mind4CIO podcast, Building Trust, Culture and Capability for Responsible AI Adoption.

Today, we are pleased to be speaking with Diron Velu.

Diron has spent the better part of two decades at the frontier of artificial intelligence, long before AI became a dinner table conversation.

So coming up in today's episode, we will be joined by a very special guest, Juanda Perez-Emanuel, to share the latest and greatest from public sector.

And we'll take a peek into Microsoft's third annual Responsible AI Transparency Report.

We'll also break down the House passing historic reforms to rein in secret surveillance.

Jonathan?

Let's do it.

Okay.

So responsible AI in 2026, how are we adapting for what's ahead? So Microsoft has released its third annual responsible AI transparency report outlining how the company is evolving its approach as AI systems become more powerful and agent driven.

The report emphasizes that success with AI isn't just about better models.

Hello and welcome back to the AI Ethics Now podcast.

My name is Tom Ritchie and I'm really pleased today to be joined by Dr. Jessica Riddell, Professor of Early Modern Literature in the English Department at Bishops University Quebec, where she holds the Stephen A. Jaroslawski Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence.

Jessica is the founder of the Hope Circuits Institute and the author of Hope Circuits, Rewiring Universities and Other Systems for Human Flourishing, a book that's become something of a call for action for how we rethink teaching, leadership and governance in higher education.

So it's such a treat.

This is my first thing back since summer vacation.

I wonder, Jessica, what brings you to this conversation on AI ethics, please?

Well, you know, Tom, I come to AI ethics from a slightly strange direction because I'm not a technologist or an educational developer.

I'm a Shakespeare scholar and I study hope and human flourishing, civic institutions, particularly around civic imagination.

Well, one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to you is not about this, although this is very good and really valuable, But you have put a lot of work and a lot of thinking into something that a lot of people know a surface level about, which is artificial intelligence.

So currently, you're working on a doctorate having to do with AI ethics.

Can you tell us a little bit about that? I got some specific questions later on, but help us to understand what you're

doing, why you're doing it, what you've learned so far.

Can you talk to us about what you're doing to teach ethics, not to us, but teach ethics to AI?

Yeah.

So there are kind of two parallel conversations in the AI ethics community.

One is going to be the ethics conversation that you hear all the time, which is how should humans use this and should humans use this? That's an ethical question.

On Wednesday, Bill Gates posted a long essay to his Gates Notes showing just how much the Microsoft co-founder has been thinking about the social impacts of AI.

Gates is mostly in the responsible AI camp, arguing that Pacing the Frontier, the open letter published by AI employees pushing for an AI slowdown, would be a good idea, but expressing skepticism that it would be sustainable.

He also expressed excitement about AI's benefits to science and healthcare, but worried about the labor impacts.

All pretty familiar stuff if you follow Anthropic's policy work.