Humans in the Lead: The Case for Advancing Intelligence, Not Just Automating It

The real AI question isn't about automation - it's whether we're designing technology to advance human capability or quietly engineer it out.

In this episode, Dean van Leeuwen and Graeme Codrington ask the question most boardrooms aren't asking: are we advancing intelligence, or just advancing the artificial?

Hear what happened when one of Nashville's Waymo driverless taxis ends up in a standoff with a road foreman that the algorithm can't understand, and why the Pope's new encyclical on AI - mirrors its 130-year-old predecessor from the height of the Industrial Revolution.

You'll take away:

• Demand "humans in the lead" not just "humans in the loop" - genuine responsibility for AI outcomes

• Reframe AI as advancing intelligence - the language you use shapes the choices you make

• Build the guardrails now - seatbelts weren't mandated until the 1980s; AI's side effects are already visible

🔗 Resources mentioned

Magnificat Humanitatis - Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI → https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#The_res_novae_of_our_time

Rerum Novarum - Pope Leo XIII (1891) → https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html

The seven grey elephants framework → https://tomorrowtoday.consulting/greyelephantsintroduction

This episode explores: Intelligent Advances - one of the seven grey elephants we track at TomorrowToday Global.