AI Podcast summaries

Philosopher and Assistant Professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics, Jon Herington, is an expert on the ethics of artificial intelligence. Jon’s project explores both the possibilities and perils of using artificial intelligence (AI) to make complex research more accessible. Taking as his case study a paper on simulating ventilator allocation protocols—a topic that gained urgent relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic— he set out to examine how large language models might help bridge the gap between specialized academic knowledge and public understanding. Using a suite of AI tools, he attempted to automatically generate readable summaries at different comprehension levels (from grade school to college) and even produced a short podcast explaining the research findings.

You can find a write-up of his experience here <INSERT LINK>. This experiment served multiple purposes: testing the current capabilities of AI in translating technical content for lay audiences, understanding the ethical implications of automated research communication, and exploring how humanities scholars might thoughtfully integrate these emerging tools into public engagement work. By documenting both his successes and failures in this AI-assisted translation process, he contributes to a broader conversations about the future of public scholarship in an age of artificial intelligence.