In this episode we explore the use of AI on a personal level. Can it be of help? Is sharing your personal struggles (like many of us used to do in our My Dear Diary) with an AI companion a symptom of loneliness or is something else the matter? Can AI help make us happier and experience more serendipitous moments in our lives?

Shownotes:

Developments within the world of AI and discussions around it change very quickly, so it is always worth trying to keep up-to-date with news and analysis in newspapers and journals. John Naughton in The Guardian, for example, often writes perceptively and critically about tech. The Financial Times is also an excellent source of news and analysis from a range of perspectives.

Books, as always, are the best place to visit for thoughtful and reflective insights. A couple of books that we referred to in the series might be of interest for further reading:

Bryan Alexander. (2020). Academia next: The futures of Higher Education. Johns Hopkins University Press

Salman Khan. (2024). Brave new words: How AI will revolutionize education (and why that’s a good thing). Viking

Franssen, Tim (2024) In onze Tijd, leven in het calamiteiten-tijdperk. Alfabet Uitgevers

Some specific articles we referred to may be of interest for up-to-date(ish) perspectives on specific topics:

Stephen Bush. (April 1, 2025). Anime lessons in the limits of AI. Financial Times.

Jemima Kelly. (March 23, 2025). My date used AI to psychologically profile me. Is that OK? Financial Times

Sarah O’Connor. (March 25, 2025). A white-collar world without juniors. Financial Times.

Podcasts we recommend:

AI Report

Lex Friedman & Amanda Askell & Amodei Dario from Anthropic

AI-tussenuurtje

Music for each episode from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/the-long-ride-home

License code: H2YZ7NQ9OMLRQ3NR