In this episode of the AITEC Podcast, we’re joined by philosopher Mathilda Marie Mulert, a doctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, to explore one of the most difficult questions in contemporary tech ethics: when, if ever, is it morally permissible to simulate sexual violence? Drawing on her recent work on simulation ethics, Mulert examines video games, virtual environments, sex robots, and consensual role-play to challenge the assumption that “it’s just pretend.” We discuss the Gamers’ Dilemma, the limits of consent, and why moral context—not just content—matters when evaluating simulated wrongdoing.This conversation is philosophical, careful, and candid. Listener discretion is advised.Links:

 * Mathilda’s Oxford Internet Institute Webpage [https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/mathilda-mulert/]
   
 * Mathilda’s recent article [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-025-09878-7]
   

#28 Mathilda Marie Mulert: Sex Robots, Simulation, and the Question of Moral Harm

In this episode of the AITEC podcast, Sam Bennett and Roberto Carlos speak with Matheus Ferreira de Barros, a philosopher of technology at PUC-Rio and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, about the work of Peter Sloterdijk. Ferreira de Barros introduces Sloterdijk’s philosophy of technology, focusing on the idea that human beings and technology co-evolve and that technology plays a constitutive role in human life rather than merely serving as an external tool.The conversation explores Sloterdijk’s Spheres project, including his account of insulation, distance from nature, and the creation of protective interiors that stabilize human existence at biological, psychological, and symbolic levels. The discussion also examines the loss of large-scale meaning structures in modernity, the role of religion and culture as technologies of existential security, and how contemporary technologies, including AI, may both disrupt and reshape the spheres through which human life becomes livable.

#27 Matheus Ferreira de Barros: Technology, Spheres, and the Human Being

If our senses can deceive us and our reasoning can outrun experience, which should we trust as the true foundation of knowledge: reason alone, or the evidence of the world?

Topics discussed:
 * How radical skepticism (including modern versions like simulations) motivates Descartes’ turn inward
 * A reconstruction of René Descartes’ Cogito argument as a proposed foundation of certainty
 * The difficulty of moving from Descartes’ foundational truths to knowledge of the external world
 * Philosophical objections to Descartes’ inference from thinking occurs to a unified self exists, including Nagasena’s chariot analogy
 * The role of innate ideas and God in Descartes’ attempt to bridge the epistemic gap
 * John Locke’s rejection of innate ideas and the blank slate hypothesis
 * Locke’s empiricism, including simple vs. complex ideas and indirect realism
 * The tension between reason and the senses as competing sources of knowledge
 * The emerging dilemma between rationalism and empiricism as rival epistemic frameworks

Lesson 1.5: Reason and the Senses

Descartes responds to radical uncertainty with an audacious plan: find one belief so secure that nothing—not even deception itself—can shake it.

Topics Discussed:
 * The historical and intellectual crises of early 17th-century Europe that shaped Descartes’ project
 * The motivation behind Descartes’ method of doubt as a response to skepticism
 * The regress problem and why it pressures philosophers toward foundationalism
 * Descartes’ strategy of withholding belief from anything that can be doubted
 * Arguments from sense deception, dreaming, and the evil demon
 * Why even mathematics and logic become targets of radical doubt
 * The search for indubitable foundations as the starting point for knowledge
 * How Descartes’ internal, first-person approach marks a turning point in modern epistemology

Lesson 1.4: The Method of Doubt

In this episode of the AITEC podcast, Sam Bennett speaks with philosopher of mind and AI researcher Iwan Williams about his paper “Intention-like representations in language models?” Williams is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen and received his PhD from Monash University.

The conversation explores whether large language models exhibit internal representations that resemble intentions, as distinct from beliefs or credences. Focusing on features such as directive function, planning, and commitment, Williams evaluates several empirical case studies and explains why current models may appear intention-like in some respects while falling short in others. The discussion also considers why intentions matter for communication, safety, and our broader understanding of artificial intelligence.

For more, visit ethicscircle.org. 

#26 Iwan Williams: Do Language Models Have Intentions?

What if your ex never really left—because you trained a chatbot to be them? In this episode of the AITEC Podcast, we’re joined by philosopher Pilar López-Cantero to explore her provocative article, The Ethics of Breakup Chatbots. From the haunting potential of AI relationships to the dangers of narrative stagnation, we dive into what it means to love, let go, and maybe linger too long—with a machine. Are these bots helping us heal, or are they shaping a lonelier, more controllable kind of intimacy?

For more info, visit ethicscircle.org [https://www.ethicscircle.org/]. 

#25 Pilar López-Cantero: The Ethics of Breakup Chatbots

In this episode of the AITEC Podcast, we sit down with Kevin Crowston and Francesco Bolici—two leading scholars of information science and organizational behavior—to explore the hidden risks of generative AI in the workplace and the classroom.

Their recent paper on deskilling and upskilling with AI serves as the foundation for a conversation that ranges from ChatGPT in programming to the future of education. The key concern? AI systems may offer short-term productivity boosts—but they quietly erode the very skills people need to think, solve problems, and make decisions when things go wrong.

We unpack:

 * The tension between efficiency and learning: how AI tools give us answers but rob us of “learning by doing”
 * Why novice users might look as good as experts—but only because AI is flattening the skill curve
 * The “leveling effect” vs. the “multiplier effect”: when AI empowers novices vs. when it amplifies expert performance
 * What happens to organizations—and societies—when no one remembers how to do things manually
 * How educators can respond: should we stop students from using AI? Or teach them how to use it without becoming dependent?

From sales to software engineering, and from university classrooms to global labor markets, this episode explores how generative AI reshapes human learning, power, and value—and what we must do now to avoid a future of mass deskilling.

#24 Kevin Crowston and Francesco Bolici: The Death of Expertise?

Francis Bacon’s revolution wasn’t about solving the old puzzles of knowledge, but about changing the very rules of inquiry — turning epistemology outward, toward the world.

Topics discussed:
 * The Aristotelian worldview once made the world feel intelligible, but its central pieces began to collapse under new observations and conceptual pressures.
   
 * Around 1600, linguistic, technological, and cultural shifts gave rise to a new meaning of “experiment”: not trying something, but deliberately manipulating nature to reveal hidden causes.
   
 * Early experimentalists were seen as eccentric outliers whose strange new practices challenged tradition and authority.
   
 * Francis Bacon argued that knowledge begins with experience, requires purging our “idols,” and aims at prediction, control, and the relief of human suffering.
   
 * Bacon introduced ideas that anticipate empiricism, pragmatism, and positivism—each redefining what it means to know and what counts as meaningful inquiry.
   
 * Though powerful, Bacon’s model faces the challenge that predictive and explanatory success can still come from false theories (e.g., Ptolemy, alchemy).
   
 * The lesson closes by placing Bacon’s “knowledge is power” view beside Plato’s JTB theory, raising the question: What is knowledge, really?
   

Lesson 1.3: Knowledge Is Power

When a society tears itself apart over beliefs it cannot justify, philosophy steps in to ask what it really means to know anything at all. 

Topics explored

 * The 16th and 17th centuries were marked by intense religious fanaticism and violence (e.g., the Peasant Rebellion, Münster, the Thirty Years’ War).
 * These events pushed thinkers to demand firmer foundations for belief—not mere authority or dogma.
 * But agreement proved impossible: philosophers disagreed sharply about what counts as justification and what a belief must rest on to be considered rational.
 * Meanwhile, ancient texts and ideas—especially from Plato and the skeptics—were being rediscovered, raising old questions in a new era.
 * The lesson introduces epistemology, the study of knowledge, and frames the central issue: What makes a belief justified?
 * Plato’s Justified True Belief (JTB) theory sets the stage, but Agrippa’s Regress Argument challenges whether justification is possible at all (the setup for the next steps in the course).
 * Pyrrhonian skepticism reappears as a powerful alternative: suspend judgment to achieve ataraxia, tranquility free from dogmatic conflict.

Lesson 1.2: Thinking About Knowledge

Philosophy begins the moment you stop defending what you believe and start asking why you believe it.

Lesson 1.1: Intro to PHIL

Welcome to AITEC Podcast, where we explore the ethical side of AI and emerging tech.

We call our little group the AI and Technology Ethics Circle (AITEC). Visit ethicscircle.org [https://www.ethicscircle.org/] for more info. 

AITEC Philosophy Podcast

These are PHIL courses taught by R. C. M. García at El Camino College. 

Roberto Carlos

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