I have to roll my eyes at the constant click bait headlines on technology and ethics.  If we want to get anything done, we need to go deeper. That’s where I come in. I’m Reid Blackman, a former philosophy professor turned AI ethics advisor to government and business. If you’re looking for a podcast that has no tolerance for the superficial, try out Ethical Machines.

Episode List

We May Have Only 2-3 years Until AI Dominates Us

Feb 19th, 2026 5:05 AM

I tend to dismiss claims about existential risks from AI, but my guest thinks I - or rather we - need to take it very seriously. His name is Olle Häggström and he’s a professor of mathematical statistics at Chalmers University of Technology in, Sweden, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He argues that if AI becomes more intelligent than us, and it will, then it will dominate us in much the way we dominate other species. But it’s not too late! We can and we must, he argues, change the trajectory of how we develop AI.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Let AI Do the Writing

Feb 12th, 2026 5:30 AM

We hear that “writing is thinking.” We believe that teaching all students to be great writers is important. All hail the essay! But my guest, philosopher Luciano Floridi, professor and Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center, sees things differently. Plenty of great thinkers were not also great writers. We should prioritize thoughtful and rigorous dialogue over the written word. As for writing, perhaps it should be considered akin to a musical instrument; not everyone has to learn the violin…Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

What AI Risk Needs to Learn From Other Industries

Feb 5th, 2026 4:53 AM

We’ve been doing risk assessments in lots of industries for decades. For instance, in financial services and cyber security and aviation, there are lots of ways of thinking about what the risks are and how to mitigate them at both a microscopic and microscopic level. My guest today, Jason, Stanley of Service now, is probably the smartest person I’ve talked to on this topic. We discussed the three levels of AI risk and the lessons he draws from those other industries that we crucially need in the AI space.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Can AI Do Ethics?

Jan 29th, 2026 5:00 AM

Many researchers in AI think we should make AI capable of ethical inquiry. We can’t teach it all the ethical rules; that’s impossible. Instead, we should teach it to ethically reason, just as we do children. But my guest thinks this strategy makes a number of controversial assumptions, including how ethics works and what actually is right and wrong. From the best of season two. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

AI is Culturally Ignorant

Jan 22nd, 2026 5:00 AM

AI is deployed across the globe. But how sensitive is it to the cultural contexts - ethics, norms, laws and regulations - in which it finds itself. My guest today, Rocky Clancy of Virginia Tech, argues that AI is too Western-focused. We need to engage in empirical research so that AI is developed in a way that comports with the people it interacts with, wherever they are.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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