By: Jennifer Eckert on January 29, 2025
I used to have a beautiful chestnut brown pony named Cupcake, with a vibrant star on her forehead and one white sock. She was a mix of a Quarter Horse and a Shetland Pony, perfectly sized for a scrawny kid like me. My mother, a single parent with a modest income, bought her for me…
By: Diane Tuttle on January 29, 2025
A book feels like I have an old friend in my hands. I like the texture, the ability to turn a corner of a page to mark my spot and writing some notes in the margins. Yes, Dr. Jason, I still like to write in my books. Consequently, I was not excited about reading this…
By: Shela Sullivan on January 28, 2025
Karise Hutchinson is a Professor of Leadership and the founder of Illuminaire Leadership, also known as Illuminaire Institute. Hutchinson has dedicated over 20 years to researching, teaching, consulting, and writing about leadership, with the aim to bring life and light to leaders across the globe. Illuminaire Institute uses storytelling to make complex leadership research both…
By: Adam Cheney on January 28, 2025
This has been a hard week to work in the world of immigration. To put it bluntly, I am exhausted and weary. Executive Orders regarding immigration seem to be coming at lightning speed and it is challenging to stay on top of them. Add this to barrage of needs and requests and it feels a…
By: Glyn Barrett on January 28, 2025
Karise Hutchinson’s leadership magazine Illuminaire[i] provides an exploration of leadership and is a blend of research findings, thought-provoking conversations with leadership consultants, and reflective essays, offering a holistic view of what it means to lead effectively in today’s world. The magazine is organised into four thematic sections, each commentating a distinct aspect of leadership.…
By: Ryan Thorson on January 27, 2025
“The mind that comes to rest is tended In some ways that it cannot intend Is born, preserved, and comprehended By what it cannot comprehend.” ~ Wendell Berry, from 1979 in This Day I appreciated very much reading through this volume of illuminaire on leadership. Hutchinson and her contributors have woven together a wonderful tapestry…
By: Jeff Styer on January 27, 2025
Illuminaire Volume One was a refreshing publication to read.[1] Karise Hutchinson effectively laid out the purpose of the publication “I created Illuminaire Press to provide a platform that harnesses the collective wisdom from research and practice, bringing science and strategy of leadership together through story and art. In my experience, it is the triangulation that…
By: Joel Zantingh on January 27, 2025
We’re in an interesting cultural moment with Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancing exponentially, reinforcing the necessity to discover what it means to truly be human. When we speak of intelligence, the importance of knowledge and of productivity are there, but there are elements of our human-essence that go far beyond what the AI is coded for,…
By: Noel Liemam on January 26, 2025
Issue of AI “Two of the biggest design problems in Artificial Intelligence are how to build robots that behave in line with human values and how to stop them ever from going rogue. One under-explored solution these alignment and control problems might be to examine how these are already addressed in the design of humans.…
By: Daren Jaime on January 24, 2025
I will never forget a conversation that ensued with a family friend nearly 3 decades ago. She implored me to pay my toll using the cashier and boycott using the express lane. Her reason was simple: “humanity is being replaced by automation, and Daren will soon lose many jobs.” Several years later, she was forced…
By: Glyn Barrett on January 24, 2025
I have a Shorkie (pictured). His name is Milo. He is two and is a cross between a Shitzu and a Yorkshire terrier (Yorkie). He follows me everywhere, and I love him. In our weekly doctoral Zoom calls, you will see him sleeping in my reading chair behind me. If you have a dog, you…
By: Chad Warren on January 23, 2025
In Marvel’s Age of Ultron, Tony Stark’s well-meaning attempt to create an artificial intelligence protector goes catastrophically wrong when Ultron, his creation, turns against humanity. Ultron concludes humanity is Earth’s greatest threat. When he declares, “They are doomed,” it becomes clear that the AI villain’s cold logic sees humanity’s flaws—its contradictions, irrationality, and uncertainty—as its…
By: Julie O'Hara on January 23, 2025
While taking a brief scroll break this morning, the first thing in my feed was a fluffy piece on @ridethenews about a company called Realbotix that touts its life-like AI robots as a possible cure for the epidemic of loneliness. According to the company’s website, “Created to be social, our robots and AI are…
By: Diane Tuttle on January 23, 2025
In class Dr. Clark made mention that Robot Souls was an easy book that wouldn’t be difficult to read. Those may not have been the exact words but that is how I heard this preamble. My experience of this book was anything but easy. Part computer science and part philosophy Robot Souls may read easily…
By: Kari on January 23, 2025
My usual “study partner,” ChatGPT, is not working today. Several times, I attempted, unsuccessfully, to open his application. I also did my typical African internet troubleshooting, such as rebooting my router, using a VPN, and restarting my computer. Perplexed, I did a quick Google search and discovered my newfound friend, ChatGPT, was experiencing a worldwide…
By: Graham English on January 23, 2025
In Ex Machina, a programmer named Caleb is chosen to perform a Turing test on a robot to determine the capabilities and consciousness of a female robot. It becomes apparent that the robot is more self-aware and deceptive than anyone could have imagined. Nathan: Over the next few days you’re going to be the human…
By: Debbie Owen on January 23, 2025
In the quest to create artificial intelligence that mirrors human consciousness, we find ourselves grappling with an age-old question: What makes us truly human? Eve Poole, in Robot Souls, suggests that our so-called imperfections—our emotions, intuition (which she calls the Sixth Sense), mistakes, storytelling, uncertainty, free will, and search for meaning—are not flaws but essential…
By: Elysse Burns on January 23, 2025
Does the soul make us unique? We often use the figurative saying, “You have no soul,” to describe someone we perceive as lacking humanity. The soul is a concept deeply embedded in our everyday language, reflected in expressions like “the eyes are the window to the soul,” “to bare one’s soul,” “to pour one’s heart…
By: Shela Sullivan on January 21, 2025
Book Summary Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity by Eve Poole explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and human essence. Poole argues that for AI to reach its full potential, it must integrate the “messy” and “unquantifiable” aspects of humanity, such as emotions, intuition, and the capacity to make mistakes. The book is structured as…
By: Jennifer Eckert on January 21, 2025
In a podcast interview, author and academic Eve Poole talks about taking her children to the beach and watching them dig holes and build castles in the sand, which children have done for thousands of years. She hears their laughter as the water comes swooshing over their feet. She begins to lament that such an…
