Helen and Dave Edwards are co-founders of the Artificiality Institute, a nonprofit research organization that helps people stay human in the age of AI. They explore how AI changes the way we think, who we become, and what it means to be human. Through story-based research, education, and community, they help people choose the relationship they want with machines, so they remain the authors of their own minds.

Before founding the Artificiality Institute, they co-founded Intelligentsia.ai, an AI-focused research firm acquired by Atlantic Media. Helen previously led large-scale technology and transformation efforts in critical infrastructure, while Dave spent years shaping creative tools at Apple and investing in emerging technologies as a venture capitalist at CRV and an equity research analyst at Morgan Stanley and ThinkEquity.

In this second part of our conversation, we talk about:

1. Rethinking intelligence as something layered, embodied, and expressed in different forms
2. The “SaaSpocalypse” moment on Wall Street
3. The “Dust Bowl” metaphor and the risk of automating complex human systems too quickly
4. Transition from the attention economy to the intimacy economy
5. Dave and Helen’s reflections on what is lost when we use AI
6. How AI systems uncover hidden structures in language, science, and the natural world
7. Practical ways creators can decide where AI belongs in their creative process

To learn more about Helen and Dave’s work, you can find them at:

https://artificialityinstitute.org/

Books and resources mentioned:

The Artificiality, AI Culture, and Why the Future Will Be Co-Evolution (by Helen Edwards)

This season of the podcast is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust.

Support the show

Helen and Dave Edwards are co-founders of the Artificiality Institute, a nonprofit research organization that helps people stay human in the age of AI. They explore how AI changes the way we think, who we become, and what it means to be human. Through story-based research, education, and community, they help people choose the relationship they want with machines, so they remain the authors of their own minds.

Before founding the Artificiality Institute, they co-founded Intelligentsia.ai, an AI-focused research firm acquired by Atlantic Media. Helen previously led large-scale technology and transformation efforts in critical infrastructure, while Dave spent years shaping creative tools at Apple and investing in emerging technologies as a venture capitalist at CRV and an equity research analyst at Morgan Stanley and ThinkEquity.

In this first part of our conversation, we discuss:

1. Helen and Dave's early childhood experiences of beauty
2. The origin of the Artificiality Institute
3. How AI is already reshaping the way we reason, write, create, and make decisions
4. What happens to human reasoning and decision-making when AI becomes part of our thinking process
5. The difference between “drift” and intentional authorship when working with AI
6. Cognitive sovereignty as the central challenge of the AI era
7. How can people use AI deeply and skillfully
8. The concept of symbolic plasticity and how AI can reshape the frameworks we use to understand the world

To learn more about Helen and Dave’s work, you can find them at:

https://artificialityinstitute.org/

Books and resources mentioned:

The Artificiality, AI Culture, and Why the Future Will Be Co-Evolution (by Helen Edwards)

This season of the podcast is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust.

Support the show

Dr. Marco Ventura is Professor of Law and Religion and Religious Diplomacy at the University of Siena in Italy. Trained in bioethics and biolaw at the University of Strasbourg, he has advised the European Parliament, the OSCE, and various governments on the intersection of religion and rights. He directed the Center for Religious Studies at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento and chairs the G20 Interfaith Working Group on Religion, Innovation, and Technology and Infrastructures.

Marco is the author of numerous books, including From Your Gods to Our Gods and Nelle mani di Dio, la super religione del mondo che verrà. Over the past decade, he has helped shape the emerging field exploring the encounter between religion and innovation.

In this episode, we explore Marco's work on bioethics and technoscience, their influential position paper mapping out this emerging field of religion and innovation, and what innovation really means in a religious context.

In this second part of our conversation, we talk about:

1. The language of innovation

2. How do religious communities decide what kind of change is desirable?

3. Innovation, markets, and technology as rival meaning systems

4. Resistance movements as responses to innovation

5. Politicization and polarization in debates about markets and capitalism

To learn more about Marco’s work, you can find him at:

• https://credo.unisi.it/about/secretariat-and-experts/person/marco

Links Mentioned:

• Religion, Innovation, Position paper, FBK 2019 - https://isr.fbk.eu/en/about-us/position-paper/
• Fondazione Bruno Kessler – https://www.fbk.eu/
• G20 Interfaith Forum – https://www.g20interfaith.org/
• Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – https://www.osce.org/

This season of the podcast is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust.

Support the show